Richard Serra, “Equal Weights and Measures” (2006). Forged weatherproof steel, 51×63 × 75 inches each. Courtesy of Gagosian Gallery.
via clairebarliant.com:
Today's quote is from Richard Serra. (Taken from an interview with Phong Bui in the June 2006 issue of The Brooklyn Rail.)
"My problem with the found object is that even though it immediately transformed the field of possibilities I always thought it didn’t lead to a great deal of invention. That said it is also undeniable that Duchamp’s readymade is considered one of the most important contributions to twentieth century art. It called into question any agreed upon criterion for artistic production. Duchamp’s ready-made was an attempt to transcend mass production by placing a mass produced object in isolation and conferring upon it the special status of a fetish. In its isolation the object was non relational, non referential and disconnected. The problem of the readymade is that it eliminates critical subjectivities by substituting the art of making for the art of selection. It is a mere transposition of an object into an art object by display. Much of contemporary art has been animated by Duchamp. Today the endless re-iteration of the ready-made dominates the market and accounts for a lot of insipid surrealism."
