Ready-made is probably the most controversial technique of modern art that raises many questions. The phenomenon of ready-made art calls for reservations about the definition of what a work of art is and what is the role of the artist.
There are opinions that this type of art no longer requires the author to contribute to art of tremendous work, study in art academies and years of honed skills. The artist is no longer a creator, but only an interpreter, his main tool is mind. How did art come to the stage of its development in which the idea is valued more than the object itself?
Marcel Duchamp became the precursor of the ready-made art
To answer this question, you need to turn to the history of the early 20th century. It was during this period that the bloody events of the First World War shocked the entire world. There was a breakdown in the entire system of human values. The absurdity, contradictions and stupidity of the First World War were reflected in a certain way on the world-view and work of the artists of that time.
Marcel Duchamp became one of the central artists of the 20th century. It was he who introduced the concept of ready-made and used this technique to express the absurd ideas of Dadaism. His famous work "The Fountain" was an ordinary urinal, signed by the pseudonym R. Matt. Duchamp first exhibited his ready-made object at an exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in 1917, where it made a splash. What is so special about this plumbing item? Why is the Duchamp Fountain transformed into a work of art from millions of urinals?
Duchamp's urinal was a hooligan gesture, a precedent exposed to the public at a certain place, at the right time and for a specific purpose. It was not for a simple reason that the artist gave the name "Fountain" to his work precisely. There was a certain meaning hidden in this title. It was the association with the beautiful fountains of Europe that Marcel Duchamp had when choosing an object to express his contempt for the European bourgeoisie. The artist was deeply outraged by the passive position of the European elite in relation to the horrors of the First World War. The upside-down urinal has become a symbol of the decline of Europe and its values. Thus, the bold revolutionary artwork of Marcel Duchamp undoubtedly influenced the arts development of the postmodern era, and his urinal became an icon of ready-made.
Museum walls can change the way we look at familiar things
As a result, ready-made only strengthened its position in contemporary art, but did not cease to shock the public. Various artists still use this technique to bring new meaning to common household items. The artist in this way turns the usual perception of reality, while leaving a huge field for the development of the viewer's imagination. In this process, the author is assisted by the walls of a museum or gallery. Everything that is placed on the walls of the museum becomes sublime and mystical for the audience.
Jeffrey Koons continued Duchamp's ideas
One of the most expensive contemporary artists, Jeff Koons, also noticed this trend. Inspired by the work of Marcel Duchamp, Koons introduced his Hoover series of ready-made vacuum cleaners in 1980. The author placed virgin household items, which were never used for their intended purpose, in a glass cube and exposed them in a certain light for the audience to contemplate. In this way, the author deprives domestic objects of their function and gives them a new life. The spectators, abstracting from the functional purpose of the object, could enjoy the beauty and elegance of its forms and appreciate the unusualness of its appearance.
Koons' artworks contain a certain symbolism. All the shiny new items housed in the cube were a reflection of the capitalist era of consumption, a symbol of the Great American dream. The artist blurs the line between art and the reality of the everyday world.
New trend of contemporary art - invisible artworks
Nowadays, contemporary artists have gone even further, they have removed the object from the work of art, leaving only the idea itself. And again, the walls of the museum helped to embody the author's bold decisions. In 2011, The Museum of Non-Visible Art MONA appeared in New York for the first time in the history of art. It features various invisible works of art that you can try to imagine by reading the plate describing the author's work. Invisible paintings not only gained popularity among viewers, but also found their buyers. So the picture of the famous American actor James Franco "Fresh Air", was sold to media producer Aimee Davidson for $10 000. According to the author himself, creating invisible paintings takes conceptual art to a completely different level, thereby turning the viewer into a creator.
Another author, Salvatore Garau, sold his invisible sculpture called “I am” for $18 000 at an Art-Rite auction in 2021. As the author himself explains, there is no such thing as nothing, and emptiness is a space filled with energy. It is this energy that Salvatore Garau advises the private collector, who has purchased the artwork, to store it in a special room, approximately 150 x 150 cm in size.
Summarizing the above, we can say that the appearance of ready-made in contemporary art opened a completely new approach to understanding authorship and the object of art. It also contributed to the involvement of the viewer in the artistic process and the emergence of innovative strategies. The ready-made art allowed the intellect to define what a work of art is, thereby transforming art into philosophy.
Moreover, the evolution of art does not stop there. Examples of invisible paintings exhibited at The Museum of Non-Visible Art MONA or invisible sculpture by Salvatore Garau testify to the dominant role of the idea and the tremendous importance of the author's name in determining what is a work of contemporary art. It is interesting what this development trend will lead to in the future.
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