Readymades

The “readymade” first appeared on the art scene in 1913 when artist Marcel Duchamp put his signature to a bicycle wheel mounted atop a wooden stool and presented it to the world as art. Ever since, the readymade has been a source of conceptual challenge for art and artist alike.

To art, the readymade has posed the fundamental question, “What is art?”, and why is it that some things are considered art and other things are not? To the artist, it has posed the challenge to step beyond the bounds of what has become stereotyped as “art” and into a realm where anything can become art—whether a painted canvas or a mass-produced consumer item (which the artist had no part in “making”)—simply by an artist declaring it to be so.

One might have thought that introducing the concept of the readymade would suddenly result in everything in the world becoming objects of art. On the contrary, it called into question everything that had ever been declared to be art.

Shown here are some of my own readymades.

--Don Haggerty

Bird's Nest Balanced on 2x4 and Wine Glass
11"H x 15"W x 7"D

Underwood Typewriter on Lazy Susan
11"H x 20.5"W x 20.5"D

Organizer Filed Atop Leopard Skin Lamp
24"H x 12.25"W x 8.5"D

Twenty-four Readymades All in a Row
(Or, Twenty-four Useful Phrases Randomly Selected
from Grenville Kleiser’s book of Fifteen Thousand)
Medium: Useful phrases
17"H x 14"W (framed)

Bottle Rack
Chromed Steel
23 1/2"H x 8 1/4"W x 8 1/4"D

Bottle Rack (detail)
Chromed steel

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