Marcel Duchamp, art and the ethical signifi cance of a renewed relationship with the object

Abstract

In this paper I shall show that the artworks of Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) harbour as yet unheeded ontological and ethical implications. I shall do this through an investigation of Duchamp’s readymades and his writings on “indifference,” as well as Duchamp’s most complex work, The Large Glass. I shall show that Duchamp’s works accomplish a recalibration of the work-spectator relationship through which modern art reclaims and proclaims the object’s inherent rights to self-manifestation and self-affirmation. I conclude by showing that the challenge posed by Duchamp’s art does not pertain to art alone, but calls for a genuine renewal of our ethical relationship with the other generally.