Duchamp and the Quotidian Object in Contemporary Art Part 1: NeoDada

Use of the quotidian object: Collage and Synthetic Cubism Picasso, Still Life with Chair Caning

Marcel Duchamp, Readymades: Bicycle Wheel, 1913; Bottle Rack, 1914; Fountain, 1917 Artist: Marcel Duchamp Title: Fountain Medium: Porcelain plumbing fixture and enamel paint Size: height 24⅝" (62.5 cm) Date: 1917 Source/ Museum: Photograph by Alfred Stieglitz. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection (1998–74–1)

Surrealist objects: Meret Oppenheim, Objet (Dejeuner en fourrure) 1936 Surrealism is “as beautiful as the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on an operating table.” –Isidore-Lucien Ducasse Artist: Meret Oppenheim Title: Object (Le Déjeuner en Fourrure) (Luncheon in Fur) Medium: n/a Size: Fur-covered cup, diameter 4 ⅜" (10.9 cm) fur-covered saucer, diameter 9 ⅜" (23.7 cm) fur-covered spoon, length 8" (20.2 cm) overall height, 2 ⅞" (7.3 cm) Date: 1936 Source/ Museum: The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Joseph Cornell, Untitled (Hotel Eden), 1945

Allan Kaprow, “The Legacy of Jackson Pollock” Objects of every sort are materials for the new art... An odor of crushed strawberries, a letter from a friend, or a billboard selling Drano; three laps on the front door, a scratch, a sigh, or a voice lecturing endlessly, a blinding staccato flash, a bowler hat—all will become materials for this new concrete art.

Detail of Pollock’s Full Fathom Five, showing the quotidian objects on the surface

Allan Kaprow, 18 Happenings in 6 Parts, 1959

Allan Kaprow, Chicken, 1962

Allan Kaprow, Chicken, 1962

Allan Kaprow, “The Legacy of Jackson Pollock” Young artists of today need no longer say, "I am a painter" or "a poet" or "a dancer." They are simply "artists." All of life will be open to them. They will discover out of ordinary things the meaning of ordinariness. They will not try to make them extraordinary but will only state their real meaning. But out of nothing they will devise the extraordinary and then maybe nothingness as well.

Rauschenberg, Collection, 1953

Robert Rauschenberg: “There was something about the self-confession and self-confusion of abstract expressionism—as though the man and the work were the same—that personally always put me off because at that time my focus was in the opposite direction. I was busy trying to find ways where the imagery, the material and the meaning if the painting would be, not an illustration of my will, but more like an unbiased documentation of what I observed, letting the area of feeling and meaning take care of itself.” “Painting relates to both art and life. Neither can be made. (I try to act in the gap between the two).”

Robert Rauschenberg, Combine: Bed, 1955

Detail of Bed

Rauschenberg, Odalisk, 1955-58

Rauschenberg, Erased De Kooning, 1953

Rauschenberg, Erased De Kooning, 1953 Duchamp, Fountain, 1917

Jasper Johns, 3 Flags, 1958

Johns, White Flag, 1955

Johns, Target with Plaster Casts, 1955

Johns, Target with Plaster Casts, detail of casts

Johns, detail of Target With Plaster Casts

Johns, Painted Bronze (Ale Cans), 1960

Johns, Gray Numbers, 1958

Johns, Map, 1961

Johns, Map, 1961 vs De Kooning, Excavation, 1950

Johns, Painting with Two Balls, 1960

Johns, False Start, 1962

Semiotics: the study of how language produces meaning Two parts make up a sign: the signifier and the signified. The signifier is the word, sound, or representation, and the signified is the concept or thing being represented. Example of signifier/signified conflict in Johns’ work: RED RED RED YELLOW YELLOW BLUE BLUE BLUE Example: “CAT” = signifier = signified

Oldenburg, The Store, 1961

Oldenburg, Giant Hamburger, 1962

Claes Oldenburg, Floor Cake, 1962 60" x 9' x 48"

Oldenburg installation view, Green Gallery, 1962

Oldenburg, Soft Fur Good Humors, 1963 Meret Oppenheim, Objet (Dejeuner en fourrure) 1936

Oldenburg, Soft Toilet, 1966

Oldenburg, Proposed Monument for New York City: Teddy Bear, 1965

Oldenburg, Proposal for the entrance to the Waldo Tunnel in the form of a nose, 1972

Oldenburg with the Yale sculpture Lipstick on Caterpillar Treads, 1969

Telescoping lipstick models, 1969

Current Lipstick on Caterpillar Treads with steel tube

John Cage, 4’33”, 1953 They say, “you mean it’s just sounds?” thinking that for something to just be a sound is to be useless, whereas I love sounds just as they are, and I have no need for them to be anything more than what they are. I don’t want them to be psychological. I don’t want a sound to pretend that it’s a bucket or that it’s president or that it’s in love with another sound. I just want it to be a sound. —John Cage

Detail of score for 4’33”

John Cage and Hugo Ball during performances

Rauschenberg in front of a White Painting, 1951

Rauschenberg, White Painting, 1951