Introduction
The ideas and art of Marcel Duchamp that occurred in 20th century had possibilities of influencing other artists that succeeded him. The uniqueness of Duchamp artistic process associated with surrealism and Dadaism remained influential to his succeeding artists. The concept of readymade altered the understanding of artists regarding the object of art. Duchamp refused to accept the existing standards of art hence leading to the development of a newly recognized style. Duchamp left a profound impact to the oeuvre of artists who succeeded him later in the century (Kuenzli, Rudolf, Francis and Naumann, 55). As will be analyzed in this paper, Robert Morris, Benjamin Buchlon and Claeus Oldenburg are some of the artists that ended up influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s conceptual and Dadaism art. The paper analyzes the influence of Marcel Duchamp to the oeuvre of Robert Morris, Benjamin Bochlon and Cleaus Oldenburg that succeeded him.
Analyzes of Robert Morris oeuvre
Robert Morris artistic work of 1960’s that figured minimalism through sculptures and theoretical writings using geometrical shapes that stripped under metaphorical associations focusing on art relations with the observer embraced and rejected some aspects of Marcel Duchamp. Robert Morris embraces the Duchamp avant-garde concepts like readymade, machine concepts, irony and subversions in his minimalism (Ashton. 33). Majority of Robert Morris’ creative strategy returns to the oeuvres of Marcel Duchamp through repetitions. The use of repetitive objects by Robert Morris asserts that objects find their meaning from acting as part of the sequence, but not from their inherent features. Repetitive was away of embracing the early avant-garde art through the enacting of interpretative transcription. According to Ades, Robert Morris oeuvres in the early 1960’s repeated the artistic works of Marcel Duchamp (87).
Despite the many repetitive copying of Marcel Duchamp oeuvres of readymade, gendering, deskilling and performance, there are some incidences in which the two artists seem to diverge. Robert Morris seems to reject the association of surrealism and Dadaism used by Marcel Duchamp by the introduction of modern art that was eminent towards the end of the 20th century. Drinkall argued that minimalism piece of artistic work was a way of self-proclamation of the movement from World Wars and social imbalance to modernity and social equity (99). The use of shapes with three-dimensional outlook by the observers was an articulation of different intentions and motivation in the modern art. The inclusion of modernity by shaping the object was away of rejecting Marcel Duchamp’s readymade pieces (Duchamp et al, 45). The oeuvres for Robert Morris had an implication on the viewer than Marcel pieces. Robert Morris tends to be accepting the financial and status gain from art, which Marcel Duchamp had rejected by adopting deskilling.
Analyzes of Benjamin Bochlon oeuvre
Benjamin Buchlon is a historian artist and a professor of modern art at the University level. In his artwork, in one way or the other agree and disagrees with Marcel Duchamp avant-garde pieces. Benjamin Buchlon embraces the conceptual art adopted by Marcel Duchamp in the modem art by the use of objects in a geometrical perspective. Benjamin Buchlon oeuvres involve the cultural production of post war occurrences. The use of shapes in the presentation of the modern lifestyles is a show to bring a new style of art that changed the notion of architecture to other artists that succeeded him (Haralambidou, 40). This is the same way, Marcel Duchamp view the existing artwork of gaining status and finance to a newly art associated with Dadaism and surrealism.
There are some incidence in which Benjamin Buchlon rejected the gendering aspect of Marcel Duchamp. Benjamin Buchlon accords modernity to social-political equity in the society without gender disparities. He rejects the traditional artistic perspective that is associated with the histories of World War I of surrealism and Dadaism associations. Benjamin Buchlon starts to perceive art to touch to the modernity in all spheres of life beyond civil warfare (Mura, 55). He tries to reconcile the traditional artwork and the modern oeuvres through the examination of physical characteristics and form. Buchlon stops to major in the use of performances and deskilling as Marcel Duchamp used it. Cassandra argued that Benjamin Buchlon engages in the use of geometry to represent the socio-political and cultural landscapes representation through visionary arts (77). He tries to articulate the isolated cultures of American and European modernism in artwork beyond the conceptual art of Marcel Duchamp.
Analyzes of Claes Oldenburg oeuvre
The critical analysis of Claes Oldenburg as an American sculpture well known for public installations of artwork showing representation of everyday objects denotes some area of agreeing and rejecting the conceptual and Dadaism artwork. Claes agrees with the avant-garde art of Marcel Duchamp in the American popular culture (Miranda, 44). There are incidences in which Claes Oldenburg agrees the use of readymade as was adopted by Marcel Duchamp. Oldenburg uses highly intellectual styles in sculpture to represent the daily occurrences of incidences using readymade oeuvre. The introduction of pop art to replace expressionism in American art was a way of agreeing with Marcel Duchamp’s use of Dadaism in replacing the contextual artwork of visual satisfaction, financial gain and award winning. The pop art by Claes Oldenburg shares many characteristics of Dada-surrealism associations. The use of sculpture in representing the daily occurrences of happenings became popular in the American artistic work.
Oldenburg uses performances in his artwork as derived from the Marcel Duchamp’s by through displaying his artwork in exhibitions. For instance, in 1976 he showed his figurative sculpture drawings at Moderna Museet. Claes Oldenburg became very prominent through performances with several prizes through performances. It was the appreciation of Marcel Duchamp performance style in showing association of Dadaism and artwork in showing the postwar scenario (Tavares et al, 33). Some of the awards that Claes Oldenburg won through performances included Brandels University sculpture award in 1971, Skowhegan Medal for Sculpture in 1972, and the first prize sculpture award of 1977. When critically analyzed, it is evident that Claes Oldenburg was trying to follow the footsteps of Marcel Duchamp in popularization of sculpturing and the same way the latter became popular after the First World War.
Conclusively, Marcel Duchamp caused an effect to the artwork that succeeded him. The use of artistic styles associated with Dadaism and surrealism ended up carried on to the next level in the post World war civilian war. The critical analyses of artwork by Robert Morris, Benjamin Bochlon and Claes Oldenburg in the late 20th century carry on the conceptual art adopted by Marcel Duchamp. From the discussion above the three artists, agree and rejects in some notion of readymade, performance, deskilling and performance. Robert agrees by repeatedly using Dadaism and surrealism. Benjamin agrees in the use of object while showing postmodern art. Claes engages in performance the same way Duchamp used in the early 20th century. The three also rejects the Dadaism and surrealism in view of bringing modernity in artwork.
Works cited
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