Reconsidering the Language of the Readymade in Dada and Surrealism
ART6-5b-Mon1
Talia Kwartler
This course will take place virtually on Zoom. Participation in this course requires a device (ideally a computer or tablet, rather than a cell phone) with a camera and microphone in good working order and basic familiarity with using Zoom and accessing email.
April 21 - May 19
In October 1961, Marcel Duchamp explained the inscriptions he attached to his readymades in the lecture “Apropos of ‘Readymades’”: “The sentence instead of describing the object like a title was meant to carry the mind of the spectator towards other regions more verbal.” These readymades, everyday objects Marcel Duchamp deemed as works of art, expanded the possibilities of what an artist could do and what art could be. The verbal aspect of readymades – whether the titles or words incorporated into the works – were central to this approach. This course will consider how the readymade and language operated within Dada and Surrealism.
We will examine how language and readymades can work in tandem. Various questions will be addressed: What is a readymade? How do artists incorporate language within readymades? What materials do artists use to bring together words and readymade forms? What does it mean to use language as a readymade? A select group of artists associated with Dada and Surrealism will be considered: Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven, Man Ray, Meret Oppenheim, Eileen Agar, Mina Loy, and Joseph Cornell. Except for the first class that introduces the readymade through Marcel Duchamp, each class will focus on a duo of artists and explore a different material approach to working with the readymade, from photography to painting to sculpture to assemblage. The course will explore how these artists engaged with readymades and language and transformed both in turn.
More facilitated discussion than lecture.
Assignments will include looking at artworks in class, reading writings by the selected artists in advance of class, and learning more about the scholarship on this period through select primary and secondary literature.
Weekly preparation time should be about an hour.
Talia Kwartler, PhD, received her doctorate in the History of Art from University College London in 2022. Her dissertation was the first major study of the Dadaist Suzanne Duchamp; she adapted it into her first book, Suzanne Duchamp par elle-même (2024), and is expanding it into a retrospective exhibition (Kunsthaus Zürich, June–September 2025). Currently, she is an Editor-at-Large at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt. Earlier, Kwartler worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as the Curatorial Assistant for the exhibitions Francis Picabia (2016–2017) and Max Ernst (2017–2018).