What Marcel Duchamp Taught Me : Fine Art Society

Marking the centenary of Marcel Duchamp’s invention of the readymade, What Marcel Duchamp Taught Me was a landmark exhibition at The Fine Art Society.

Taking over all five floors of its historic New Bond Street townhouse, it became the largest show in the gallery’s 140-year history. Bringing together over 50 leading contemporary artists - including Cornelia Parker, Gavin Turk, and Harland Miller - the exhibition examined the lasting impact of Duchamp’s radical redefinition of art.

By asserting that the artist’s choice alone could confer artistic status, Duchamp challenged traditional aesthetics and expanded the very nature of creative expression. Participating artists responded to this legacy through works that were at once homage, provocation, and reinvention.

Chris Levine contributed a holographic work titled Then to Now and Then Again, composed of glass and silver halide. Reflecting on Marcel Duchamp influence over his own practice, and his peice, Levine said: 

“Duchamp showed us art can be expressed in unlimited forms, an idea or concept that we engage with on our own terms and that ultimately art is in the eye of the beholder. The chess move is a metaphor for the decisions we make and the infinite potentiality of outcomes in this holographic reality.”