Poetry of the Revolution : Responses to the Avant-Garde: For 10/5

These writing all definitely tie into what we discussed in class last week. Duchamp's main theme is more of a question: What is art? He also looks at traditional paintings and asks "Why is this art?" He pushes the boundaries of sensibility in the minds of art experts by making paintings less sensory and more ingrained in deep thought. When asked in his interview if he considered himself to be a professional painter, he said that he had always been trying to escape from that label. He didn't like the way that professional painters did business, so he didn't do what they were doing. He considered himself and his work to be very ironic. There was the painting that he named Pharmacy in which he took a painting that had already been made and simply added a green and red dot in an attempt to change the entire theme of the already-made painting. He had the picture of the urinal which he ironically named "Fountain" in order to "disengage it from its utilitarian purpose." I think he wanted to push the limits of what was considered artistic ability in order to stay original.