Quotes

"The curious thing about the Readymade is that I've never been able to arrive at a definition or explanation that fully satisfies me."
Marcel Duchamp (Tomkins 159)

"Manufactured objects promoted to the dignity of objects of art through the choice of the artist"
Andre Breton (Schwarz 44)

"What is needed is not so much a single definition as a series of definitions"
Arturo Schwarz (Schwarz 44)

"Has any other modern artist ever given so many interviews about such a small number of objects without revealing anything very definite about their meaning or intention?"
Hilton Kramer (Kramer 6)

"Interpretations do not take into account the readymade's indifference to the task of offering a coherent significance"
Carter Ratcliff (Ratcliff 86)

"Any attempt to establish a formula, a key, or some other type of guiding principle by which to assess or in other ways interpret the artistic production of Marcel Duchamp would be - in the humble opinion of the present author - an entirely futile endeavor... each creative effort was conceived with the intention of consciously defying convenient categorization."
Francis M. Naumann (Kuenzli Marcel 20)