Marcel Duchamp and the art of exhibition making

Author(s)

  • Marian Cousijn

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18352/relief.930

Keywords:

Marcel Duchamp, curating, exhibitions, installation art, artistic practise

Abstract

Marcel Duchamp made his first readymade over a century ago: a deceptively simple gesture that would turn the art world upside down. The core of artistic practise no longer lies in creating, but in selecting and displaying. But selecting and displaying are also the core tasks of the independent curator. Duchamp already proved in the 1930’s how powerful an exhibition maker can be. A power struggle arose: who gives meaning to art, the curator or the artist?

Author Biography

  • Marian Cousijn

    Art historian Marian Cousijn (1987) is specialized in modern and contemporary art and exhibitions. For her thesis for the MA Museum Curator, she looked at the influence of Marcel Duchamp's practice on the power struggle between artists and curators. Marian worked at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and currently writes about contemporary art: most notably for De Correspondent, an online platform for journalism.

    A Dutch version of his article appeared in 2014 and can be read here: https://www.groene.nl/artikel/de-kunst-van-het-tentoonstellen

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Published

2016-06-21

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1 (2016): Marcel Duchamp as a litteral artist

Section

Articles - thematic dossier

License

Copyright (c) 2016 Marian Cousijn

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Tous les articles dans RELIEF sont publiés en libre accès sous la licence Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). Sous ce régime les auteurs conservent les droits d'auteur mais ils consentent à toute sorte d'utilisation de leur texte pourvu qu'il soit correctement cité.

How to Cite

“Marcel Duchamp and the art of exhibition making” (2016) RELIEF - REVUE ÉLECTRONIQUE DE LITTÉRATURE FRANÇAISE, 10(1), pp. 143–149. doi:10.18352/relief.930.