The 100th Anniversary of the Readymade

Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel, 1913

This year (and month) mark the 100th anniversary of Marcel Duchamp’s (American, 1887-1968, born France) coining and initial conceptualization of the term ‘readymade.’ Duchamp first used the word “readymade” in a letter dated January 15, 2016 to his sister. Duchamp first topped a kitchen stool with a bicycle wheel in 1913 and this wheel-on-a-stool along with another work Bottle Rack, 1914 were referenced in the letter to his sister. The original letter read:

15th January approximately. My dear Suzanne, A huge thank you for having taken care of everything for me. But why didn’t you take my studio and go and live there? I’ve only just thought of it. Though I think, perhaps, it wouldn’t do for you. In any case, the lease is up 15th July and if you were to renew it, make sure you ask the landlord to let it 3 months at a time, the usual way. He’s bound to agree. Perhaps Father wouldn’t mind getting a term’s rent back if there’s a possibility you’ll be leaving La Condamine by 15th April. But I don’t know anything about your plans and I’m only making a suggestion. Now, if you have been up to my place, you will have seen, in the studio, a bicycle wheel and a bottle rack. I bought this as a ready-made sculpture. And I have a plan concerning this so-called bottle rack. Listen to this: here, in N.Y., I have bought various objects in the same taste and I treat them as “readymades.” You know enough English to understand the meaning of “ready-made” that I give these objects. I sign them and I think of an inscription for them in English. I’ll give you a few examples. I have, for example, a large snow shovel on which I have inscribed at the bottom: In advance of the broken arm, French translation: En avance du bras casé. Don’t tear your hair out trying to understand this in the Romantic or Impressionistic or Cubist sense—it has nothing to do with all that. Another “readymade” is called: Emergency in favor of twice, possible French translation: Danger \ Crise \ en faveur de 2 fois. This long preamble just to say: take the bottle rack for yourself. I’m making it a “Readymade,” remotely. You are to inscribe it at the bottom and on the inside of the bottom circle, in small letters painted with a brush in oil, silver white color, with an inscription which I will give you herewith, and then sign it, in the same handwriting as follows: [after] Marcel Duchamp.

Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917

After the construction of Bicycle Wheel, the artist later recalled “I didn’t have any special reason to do it.” Watching the wheel spin served as a distraction and “was like having a fireplace in the studio, the movement of the wheel reminded me of the movement of the flames.” Duchamp’s bicycle wheel inspired subsequent works such as the now notorious urinal Fountain, 1917, for which he is primarily known. After this concept spread beyond an intimate circle of artists, it became revolutionary for the course of modern art. The readymade challenged figurative sculpture and the focus on the human body was replaced with the study of industrial material and commercial products. At the same time, Vladimir Tatlin was developing his constructions and there was an ‘increased industrialization and commodification of everyday life.’ (Foster, Krauss, Bois, Buchloh, Joselit, Art Since 1900). As the narrative goes, Duchamp submitted Fountain to the American Society of Independent Artists for its first exhibition in April 1917. The show accepted all 2,125 works by 1,235 artists, except for Fountain. It was derided as vulgar, immoral and plagiarism–a mere piece of plumbing. Originality and intentionality are still questioned in art in the present day.

Andy Warhol, Brillo Soap Pads Box, 1964

Duchamp’s work went on to heavily influence Pop, Minimalism, Conceptualism—and his ideas are weigh heavily on the works of canonical contemporary artists such as Robert Rauschenberg to Andy Warhol to Jeff Koons.