The Castle of Purity, page 85:
One of Duchamp’s most disturbing ideas is crystallized in an often-quoted sentence: “The spectator makes the picture.” Expressed with such insolent concision, it would seem to deny the existence of works of art and to proclaim an ingenuous nihilism. In a short text published in 1957 (“The Creative Act”), he clarifies his idea a little. He explains here that the artist is never fully aware of his work. Between his intention and realization, between what he wants to say and what the work actually says, there is a difference. This “difference” is, in fact, the work. Now, the spectator doesn’t judge the picture by the intentions of its originator but by what he actually sees. This vision is never objective; the spectator interprets and “distills” what he sees. The “difference” is transformed into another difference, the work into another work. In my opinion Duchamp’s explanation does not account for the creative act or process in its entirety. It is true that the spectator creates a work that is different from the one imagined by the artist, but between the two works, between what the artist wanted to do and what the spectator thinks he sees, there is a reality: the work. Without it, the re-creation of the spectator is impossible. The work makes the eye that sees it—or, at least it is a point of departure; out of it and by means of it the spectator invents another work. The value of a picture, a poem, or any other artistic creation is in proportion to the number of signs or meanings that we can see in it and the possibilities that it contains for combining them. A work is a machine for producing meaning. In this sense Duchamp’s idea is not entirely false: the picture depends on the spectator because only he can set in motion the apparatus of signs that comprise the whole work. This is the secret of the fascination of the Large Glass and the Readymades. Both of them demand an active contemplation, a creative participation. They make us and we make them.
Marcel Duchamp. Bicycle Wheel/Roue de bicyslette. 1913. Readymade: bicycle wheel, diameter 64.8 cm, mounted on a stool, 60.2 cm high. Original lost. Replica.
HERE is a video (55 min.) about Duchamp: A Game of Chess, in French with English subs
.jpg){kind=small}
