DUCHAMP , by Janis Mink,
Marcel Duchamp, 1887-1968, Art as Anti-Art – Taschen

“An artist expresses himself with his soul, with the soul the artwork must be assimilated.”
Marcel Duchamp

About the cold way his painting ‘nude descending a staircase’ of 1912 was received:
“(this affair) helped me to totally escape the past, my own personal past. I said to myself: ’Well, if that’s the way they want it, then there’s no question about me joining a group, one can only count on oneself, one must be a loner’”

“With a greater or lesser degree of facility, virtuosity and brio, objects are given life upon the canvas, witch belong to coarser or finer categories of ‘painting’. The harmonization of the whole upon the canvas is the path that leads to the work of art. This work is observed with cold eyes and indifferent spirit. Connoisseurs admire the ‘technique’ , enjoy the ‘peinture’ just as one enjoys the pâté.
Hungry souls go away hungry.
The artist seeks material reward for his skill, his powers of invention and observation. His aim becomes the satisfaction of his own ambition and greed. Instead of a close collaboration among artists, there’s a scramble of these rewards. There are complaints about competition and overproduction. Hatred, bias, factions, jealousy and intrigue are the consequences of this purposeless, materialist art.”

The tantalized art historian cannot reach a definite stand, because there is no final position in the relation among things.

Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the Fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it.