QuotesCosmos
Quote of Joseph Beuys statement on the 'Silence of Marcel Duchamp', in 'Death keeps me awake', interview with Achille Bonito Oliva, 1986; as quoted in Energy Plan for the Western man, by Four Walls Eight Windows, New York, 1993, pp. 169-170
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In discussing his work [of Marcel Duchamp], it is necessary to avoid overrating his silence. I hold him in a very high esteem, but I have to reject his silence. Duchamp was simply finished. He had run out of ideas; he was unable to come up with anything important.. ..I would say that even the bourgeois tendencies in Duchamp's work – i.e., a form of provocative, bohemian behavior intended to 'épater le bourgeois'- follow the same path. Duchamp started out from here and wanted to shock the bourgeoisie, and because of that he destroyed his creative powers.. ..The content of Duchamp's silence refers to the aim of leaving the subconscious passive, of developing it. This is the aspect of Duchamp, which is related to Surrealism. The surrealists asserted that they could live with their subconscious; they thought they were above reality, but instead they were beneath it. They thought they could fish in muddy waters.. ..but to my mind, the images which emerged have a repressive effect.

— Quote of Joseph Beuys statement on the 'Silence of Marcel Duchamp'

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "In discussing his work [of Marcel Duchamp], it is necessary to avoid overrating his silence. I hold him in a very high esteem, but I have to reject his silence. Duchamp was simply finished. He had run out of ideas; he was unable to come up with anything important.. ..I would say that even the bourgeois tendencies in Duchamp's work – i.e., a form of provocative, bohemian behavior intended to 'épater le bourgeois'- follow the same path. Duchamp started out from here and wanted to shock the bourgeoisie, and because of that he destroyed his creative powers.. ..The content of Duchamp's silence refers to the aim of leaving the subconscious passive, of developing it. This is the aspect of Duchamp, which is related to Surrealism. The surrealists asserted that they could live with their subconscious; they thought they were above reality, but instead they were beneath it. They thought they could fish in muddy waters.. ..but to my mind, the images which emerged have a repressive effect." in the context of "Quote of Joseph Beuys statement on the 'Silence of Marcel Duchamp', in 'Death keeps me awake', interview with Achille Bonito Oliva, 1986; as quoted in Energy Plan for the Western man, by Four Walls Eight Windows, New York, 1993, pp. 169-170" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Marcel Duchamp" (Quotes about Marcel Duchamp: sorted chronologically, by date of the quotes about Marcel Duchamp) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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#Marcel Duchamp#duchamp#silence#subconscious#bourgeois#duchamps#thought#provocative#bourgeoisie#surrealists#discussing#overrating
Marcel Duchamp

About Marcel Duchamp

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (July 28, 1887 – October 2, 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture. He was the first artist creating 'ready-made' in modern art.