Another Form of Blindness – a Symptom of an Artistic Viewpoint: Glossing the Work of Marcel Duchamp

Abstract

Not blindness itself, but blindness as a symptom for an inner seeing and as a counterforce against a one-sided fixation on beauty and taste were the reasons why Marcel Duchamp from 1916 onwards was occupied with the theme of blindness. Two volumes of The Blind Man were displayed in 1917 on the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York. The second volume contained comments about the fact that Duchamp’s contribution of a Fountain, his now so famous ready-made Urinoir, signed “R. Mutt”, was rejected by the apparently jury-less committee. This means that the theme of blindness was expressed twice: no one could see the work and so his theoretical opposition against beauty and taste could not be illustrated by the Urinoir either. How Duchamp from then on also challenged the other senses, so as to avoid focusing only on the eyes, will be dealt with in this article as well. Arguments from the biography, philosophy, mythology, and iconography will be used to underpin the article’s main thesis. In this sense the question may be asked whether Duchamp was inspired in this group of his works by humorous etymological and literary references. In the end it will become clear that the theme of blindness in his work and artistic theory is highly paradoxical.