An Exhibition Catalogue Exploring Duchamp’s Readymade Works

What the Work Is

Re-object is an exhibition catalogue published in 2007, documenting a show devoted to Marcel Duchamp’s readymades and their legacy in modern art. The catalogue belongs to the genre of art exhibition publications, combining visual documentation with scholarly commentary on one of the most influential concepts in twentieth-century art.

What the Book Is About

The catalogue centers on Duchamp’s readymades—ordinary manufactured objects that the artist selected, sometimes modified, and designated as art between 1913 and the early 1920s. These works represented Duchamp’s deliberate challenge to what he dismissed as “retinal art,” or art that appealed only to visual pleasure. By choosing mass-produced items and elevating them to the status of art through selection alone, Duchamp fundamentally questioned the nature of artistic creation, authorship, and the boundaries separating art from everyday objects. The readymade concept, which Duchamp himself later suggested might be “the most important single idea” to emerge from his work, became a cornerstone of conceptual art and continues to influence contemporary artistic practice.

Key Ideas and Themes

The readymade emerged from Duchamp’s conviction that the idea behind a work of art mattered more than its visual appearance or the skill involved in making it. He selected objects based on what he called “visual indifference”—a deliberate attempt to avoid aesthetic judgment and personal taste, which he considered “the enemy of art” whether good or bad. This approach represented a radical departure from traditional notions of artistic creation as a process of skilled handwork and aesthetic refinement.

Duchamp’s method involved choosing manufactured objects and sometimes altering them minimally—adding a title, an inscription, or combining multiple objects—to transform their meaning and context. The act of selection itself became the creative gesture. As André Breton and Paul Éluard’s surrealist dictionary defined it, a readymade was “an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.” This definition, though published under Duchamp’s name, was likely written by Breton himself.

The readymades embodied several layers of irony, humor, and ambiguity that were central to Duchamp’s artistic philosophy. He described his project as “a little game between ‘I’ and ‘me,'” acknowledging the paradox inherent in trying to escape personal taste while simultaneously making choices. He recognized that even in attempting to avoid aesthetic judgment, he was still exercising a form of selection that reflected his own sensibility. This self-aware contradiction became part of the work’s meaning.

Duchamp deliberately limited his production of readymades, creating only thirteen over a thirty-year period. He believed that restricting output was the only way to avoid falling into predictable patterns or developing a recognizable style—what he called “the trap of his own taste.” Yet he remained uncertain about the concept throughout his life, admitting that he had “never been able to arrive at a definition or explanation that fully satisfies me.”

The readymades also functioned as provocations, testing the art world’s willingness to accept unconventional objects as legitimate artworks. When Duchamp submitted some readymades to exhibitions and juries, he deliberately challenged institutional definitions of art. The most famous example, Fountain—a porcelain urinal signed “R. Mutt 1917″—was hidden from view by the board of the Society of Independent Artists despite the organization’s stated policy of accepting all submissions. Duchamp resigned from the board in protest, and the controversy became the subject of an entire issue of the publication The Blind Man.

Structure and Approach

The catalogue documents different categories of readymades that Duchamp created or later defined. Pure readymades consisted of unaltered manufactured objects selected and designated as art. Assisted readymades involved combining multiple objects or removing them from their functional context. Rectified readymades were objects that Duchamp altered through marking, drawing, or adding elements. He also conceived of “reciprocal readymades”—the inverse concept of presenting a unique artwork as if it were a mass-produced utilitarian object.

The publication addresses the complex history of these works, including the fact that most of the original readymades were lost or discarded. Years after creating them, Duchamp authorized reproductions of many pieces. Most significantly, in 1964 he worked with art dealer Arturo Schwarz to produce a limited edition of fourteen readymades through the Galleria Schwarz in Milan. This edition included eight sets for sale, artist’s proofs for Duchamp and Schwarz, and sets designated for museums. Schwarz took meticulous care in reproducing the works under Duchamp’s supervision.

Significance and Influence

The readymade concept fundamentally altered the course of modern and contemporary art by shifting emphasis from the art object’s physical qualities to the ideas and contexts that frame it. Duchamp’s assertion that an artist’s choice alone could transform an ordinary object into art opened possibilities that subsequent movements—including conceptual art, pop art, and installation art—would explore and expand.

The 1964 Schwarz edition initially met with criticism, with some artists like Daniel Buren accusing Duchamp of selling out to commercialism. However, as decades passed, these authorized replicas became accepted as legitimate stand-ins for the lost originals, acquiring comparable status and value in museums worldwide. The edition’s commercial trajectory reflected changing attitudes: initially slow to sell, with one complete set purchased for $35,000 in 1971, by 1974 Schwarz was listing complete sets at $450,000. Museums in Paris, Jerusalem, Rome, and Japan eventually acquired sets from the edition.

The catalogue also engages with scholarly debates surrounding the readymades. Research published in 1997 by Rhonda Roland Shearer raised questions about whether Duchamp’s “found objects” were truly unmodified manufactured items or whether he may have altered or even created them himself, suggesting that the artist may have been perpetrating an even more elaborate conceptual joke than previously understood. Such investigations face inherent limitations, since few original readymades survive and most existing examples are reproductions authorized by Duchamp late in his life.