Notes on the Concept of Ready-Made and Junk Sculpture

Key Concepts

• Ready-Made: An object chosen for aesthetic reasons without regard for beauty or conventional aesthetics.
• Junk Sculpture: Involves selecting discarded or repurposed objects for artistic expression.

Artists Mentioned

• Thunks: Associated with the concept of junk sculpture.
• Pablo Picasso: Earlier influencer in the realm of repurposing objects for art.

Characteristics of Junk Sculpture vs. Ready-Made

• Junk Sculpture:

  • Involves aesthetic appreciation of texture, shape, and quality of the object.
  • Selection based on romantic qualities of the object.

• Ready-Made:

  • Defined as an object selected with complete indifference to aesthetics.
  • Example objects include the bottle rack and bicycle wheel.
  • The notion of indifference is challenging; even unattractive objects can draw aesthetic connections.

Personal Involvement in Ready-Mades

• The speaker has created only 13 ready-mades in 40 years.
• Emphasizes that selection was not influenced by beauty or aesthetics.
• The difficulty in achieving true indifference in choice, as every object may possess some appealing detail.

Anecdotes and Observations

• The speaker once signed a painting in a restaurant as "ready-made" to illustrate the concept, although it was not a manufactured item.
• Reflects on the evolving perception of objects over time, noting that something once considered unattractive can accumulate beauty through time and context.
• Expresses that labeling an object as beautiful can be one of the worst compliments regarding the concept of ready-made.