Readymade Art Guide: Understanding Readymades in Art

The term ‘readymade’ refers to a work of art that is created when an artist utilizes a found object, isolates it from its intended context or function, and gives the object a new meaning. An ‘assisted readymade’ is a work of art that has components that are prefabricated objects that the artist has modified or combined to create the work of art. The term ‘readymade’ was coined by the French artist Marcel Duchamp to describe the works of art he created in the 1910s using prefabricated objects. Duchamp declared that any object could be a work of art if the artist intended it to be.

In the nineteenth century, the term ready-made was used to describe art that was made out of mass-produced objects, presented in a way that emphasized the artist’s creativity. The first to coin the term was Marcel Duchamp, who was a major figure in the Dada modern art in his early career in Europe, especially in Paris.

Dadaism mocked and antagonized the conventions of art itself, emphasizing the illogical, irrational, and the absurd. Dadaist artists often utilized collage, montage, and assemblage of disparate elements to create their art. In that vein, Duchamp would create a readymade work of art by finding a utilitarian, everyday object, manipulating it in a way that would negate its intended function, giving the object a new title, and displaying it within the context of a gallery.

Marcel Duchamp created his first readymade in 1913 when he chose to mount a bicycle wheel on a wooden four-legged stool, gave it the title Bicycle Wheel, and deemed it a completed work of art. Many artists followed in his footsteps, including Dada art contemporaries like Man Ray and Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. Later on, pop artists like Jeff Koons would be inspired by the conceptual philosophy of readymades.

Readymades spawned new thoughts of what society calls art, which paved the way for other creative movements—like conceptual art and pop art. Here are some ways that the readymades influenced art.

1. 1. Required minimal technical skills. With readymades, artists did not have to create a work of art by hand—they could create an art object by simply manipulating and presenting a prefabricated object in a novel way. To change up the context, the artist could rig the found object from the ceiling, turn it upside down, twist it, bend it, or place it on a pedestal. The technical skills associated with painting or sculpture were obsolete with the production of readymades, making the practice of this kind of art more accessible to more people.
2. 2. Turned the artist into a curator. Readymade works elevated the status of an artist from artisan to curator, because they chose which objects would become art. Duchamp leveraged the point of view and persona of the artist allowing himself the power to deem what he believed to be a work of art.
3. 3. Elevated the ordinary. Readymades are created when an ordinary object is taken out of its everyday context and elevated to the status of art. In effect, the artist draws the viewer’s attention to the extraordinary in the commonplace. Readymades paved the way for pop art, which encouraged the manipulation of recognized popular icons or objects for cultural commentary.

Here are a few examples of famous readymade works of art.

1. 1. Fountain by Marcel Duchamp (1917): During the 1917 exhibition organized by the Society of Independent Artists in New York, the artist Marcel Duchamp presented a work of art titled Fountain: a porcelain urinal turned on its side, overtly signed with a fake artist’s signature ‘R. Mutt.’ Duchamp’s Fountain epitomized the antagonism and irreverence for the past that was so characteristic of the Dadaist movement.
2. 2. God by Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven (1917): New York Dadaist Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven constructed her sculpture God by turning a household plumbing pipe upside down, and mounting it on a wooden box. The illogical and irreverent title exemplifies the humor and absurdity of the Dadaist mentality.
3. 3. The Gift by Man Ray (1921): Man Ray constructed The Gift by gluing thumbtacks to the face of an iron, rendering the appliance useless for its intended function. Man Ray constructed the work the same day that it was exhibited at his first solo gallery show in Paris in 1921.
4. 4. Bull’s Head by Pablo Picasso (1942): Cubist painter Pablo Picasso experimented with readymades when he turned to sculpture. Bull’s Head was made out of a bicycle seat and handlebars that were mounted upside-down on a wall to appear like a bull’s head.
   
5. 5. One Basketball Total Equilibrium by Jeff Koons (1985): Pristine basketballs seem to miraculously hover, defying gravity, in the best-known work from Jeff's 1985 Equilibrium series. “I wanted perfect equilibrium, like the embryo in the womb, a state where all pressures are equal,” he says.

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