Readymade duchamp essay

This essay on Marcel Duchamp’s invention of ‘the readymade’ was written and submitted by your fellow student. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly . If you are the copyright owner of this paper and no longer wish to have your work published on IvyPanda.

A term coined by Marcel Duchamp in 1915 to describe prefabricated, often mass-produced objects isolated from their intended use and elevated to the status of art by the artist choosing and designating them as such. The term “assisted Readymade” refers to works of this type whose components have been combined or modified by the artist.

Other readymade art forms produced by Duchamp included his 1920 reproduction of the Mona Lisa portrait by Leonardo da Vinci where he included a moustache and a beard in his reproduction. This led to his coining of the portrait as a rectified readymade piece of art work.

Humor and play were regular themes in readymades, and artists often included jokes or visual puns into their work. As with Dadaism, Duchamp's work sought to subvert cultural norms and play with sense and meaning.