Why’d They Put That In A Museum?
Show Notes
Artist: Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887 – 1968)
Item (above, and right): Bicycle Wheel (third version, after lost original of 1913)
Details: Metal wheel mounted on painted wood stool, 51 x 25 x 16 1/2″ (129.5 x 63.5 x 41.9 cm)
Marcel Duchamp: When Art Became an Idea
What is the essence of art? What makes art, art? Marcel Duchamp and his work raises ome of the most intriguing questions. In this podcast episode of “Why Do They Put That in a Museum?” hosts Beth Bacon and Sarah Lees discover the intellectual depth and eccentric humor of Duchamp.
Why Is That in a Museum?
Ever looked at an art piece and wondered, “Why is this on display?” That certainly applies to Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel. It appears simple yet it is intellectually complex. It’s a spoked bicycle wheel mounted on a small wooden stool. While seemingly mundane, it challenges traditional art forms by suggesting that the concept behind a piece might be more significant than its physical qualities, or the technical skill required to make it.
Bicycle Wheel by Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel sculpture is playfully irreverent and deceptively simple. It’s just a rim and a stool. But the concepts behind it are lot more complicated, and in the century since it was created, it became a pivotally important influence in the art world. In this episode of Why’d They Put That In A Museum, Sarah Lees and Beth Bacon take the ‘Bicycle Wheel’ sculpture for a spin. They explain why Duchamp created ready-mades and talk about his part on the dada movement. They contemplate Duchamp’s relationships with artists from Pablo Picasso to Jackson Pollock. To Duchamp, ideas were the most important part of any artwork. And then one day, he stopped creating and shifted to becoming a chess master.
Podcast Time Code:
(Photo credit: Beth Bacon)
(Photo credit: Beth Bacon)
Ready-Mades and Duchamp in New York
Duchamp, originally a painter who dabbled with Cubism, grew tired of art serving as a mere vehicle for personal expression. He instead posed a radical notion: if the essence of art lies in its idea, then anything can be art. This led to his creation of ready-mades—ordinary objects presented as art, such as a snow shovel he humorously titled In Advance of a Broken Arm.
Is it an original?
During WWI, Duchamp moved from Paris to New York, leaving behind works like the original Bicycle Wheel. Those pieces were actually discarded by Duchamp’s sister because she thought they were trash. Duchamp later recreated the work from different pieces. That’s what we see in the MOMA today. So… does the MOMA own an original? What is the role of the artist? Is it enough to call something art if an artist simply calls it art?
Art as an Idea
One of Duchamp’s most controversial works, a porcelain urinal signed R. Mutt 1917, famously known as Fountain, challenged the art community. His signature, a playful jab at art’s conventions, and the urinal’s transformation into an art piece, questioned what qualified as art. Duchamp’s humor and keen sense of irony influenced many. Fountain became a pivotal piece in art history.
Dadaism and Duchamp’s Legacy
Duchamp was affiliated with the Dada movement. He added a mustache to the Mona Lisa and created paper sculptures. His cerebral art diverged significantly from the emotive and crafted works of contemporaries like Picasso.
A Chess Master: Duchamp’s Later Years
Duchamp devoted his later life to chess. Why? It might be that chess is a medium where ideas are valued over creation. Duchamp believed art as a conceptual endeavor, and it’s easy to see that chess is conceptual as well.
The Impact of Duchamp’s Vision
Duchamp asserted that art is an idea in the early 20th centurty. By the mid-century, his work was re-discovered by later artists like Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol. They explored the conceptual aspects of art and were influenced by Duchamp.
The ready-made art of Duchamp, such as Bicycle Wheel, disrupted art’s conventional boundaries. With his art, Duchamp invited his viewers to reconsider the nature of art itself.
Contact Us
Say helloAbout the Podcasters
Sarah Lees
Sarah is a museum curator and researcher who has worked in organizations both large and small, and who remembers her first assignment for an art history class – to look into Rembrandt’s eyes and describe what she saw there. She believes everyone can find those kinds of connections to some form of creative expression, whether it’s a painting, a grandmother’s quilt, or a perfectly formed pen-stroke in a manuscript.
Beth Bacon
In addition to being an avid museum-goer, Beth Bacon is an author for young readers. Her books empower today’s kids to learn about themselves and the world through reading. She is also a teacher and branding consultant and a volunteer at the Missouri History Museum. Beth holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, an MA in Communication Arts from NYU, and a BA in Literature from Harvard University.
Music Credit
The music you hear in the intro and outro was composed by Edward Whelan. We appreciate his contribution to our podcast.