Copyright (c) 2015 Anuario del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte
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Abstract
Marcel Duchamp's career suffered a dramatic rupture in 1912. As a consequence of his new attitude towards artistic activity, he devoted himself almost exclusively to his work on the Large Glass and to the invention of the ready-mades. These objects were selected and manipulated with less "neutrality" than was declared later by the artist. They were not merely anti-artistic statements, but complex experiments related to the Large Glass, as planets in a solar system. They also possess several layers of meaning which can be detected and understood when we uncover their mechanical and iconographical sources. Basing himself on these premises the author proposes a reading of every single ready-made and finds a common structure to all of them.