S&A : Mr. David Duchamp, first of all, hello !
Hello to you both.
S&A : To start, did you come from a school of fine arts ?
Not at all !
However, throughout my schooling (middle and high school), I had very good visual arts teachers.
With french and mathematics, it was a subject where apparently I excelled (18 out of 20 average).
I know that this doesn't exist everywhere, but if you ask me, art (history and practice) should be a subject taught in the same way as others in all the schools of the world !
S&A : It's hard to place you. What artistic trend could you be identified with ?
I consider myself an iconoclastic and dissenting visual artist, but some have referred to me as an enlightened theoretician, and sometimes, because of the character of my artworks, as a pirate artist.
Some call me a free electron... that satisfies me and suits me well.
I also feel that I take over from movements such as « The Incoherents » [1] or « Présence Panchounette » [2] ...
And since I am against « Anti-art » [3] (such as « Dada » or « Fluxus ») , I could be the inventor of a new movement that I will call : « Anti anti-Art » [4] !
So, I leave you the choice : « Protest art », « Pirate art », « Incoherent art », « Anti anti-art ».
S&A : Besides painting and sculpture, what are your other skills ?
Since my childhood I have been passionate about art, but I am also a poet, singer, photographer, chess player, billiard player, music lover, cineaste, electronics engineer, computer coder.
I am also interested in all sciences in general (physics, chemistry, optics, medicine, etc.)
S&A : How did you go from computer science to art ?
So here is a question that comes up often and that has the gift of upset me !
I did not « go » from one thing to another... Since my childhood, I have always drawn, created, invented.
However, art does not always feed his man : Computer science was part of the « food » professions that I practised for many years, before making the decision to devote myself solely to my art.
S&A : A very famous artist gave you the title of « King of the Pretension » ...
And I took it as a compliment !
Moreover, this same artist told me that to become a recognized artist, it was better to be very pretentious.
But be careful to not confuse « Pretentious » and « Pretentious Contemptuous ».
Personally, I am never contemptuous, but I have the pretension of my intelligence.
S&A : You have lived for 30 years all over Europe. How have these voyages benefited you ?
They have allowed me to be open to other peoples and cultures, and to better understand humanity as a whole; I have discovered as much beauty as ugliness there.
My favorite places are those where I have encountered the greatest degree of open-mindedness : Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, London, Copenhagen, Bucharest, ...
S&A : You call yourself a contemporary artist, and yet you continually denigrate contemporary art. Why ?
I have long studied contemporary art in all its forms, in order to both better understand it and to be able to deconstruct it, by proving that I can do much worse, the same, or much better !
S&A : Yet you, like all other artists, are looking for recognition and glory !
Here you have it all wrong !
The artist is not important, the only thing that matters is the artwork he leaves behind him !
S&A : Do you mean you do not have an ego ?
I trample the egos who lead to self-absorbed art and I affirm I DO NOT have a super-ego !
S&A : So what makes you different from other artists ?
To start, I always try to create artworks that haven't been done by other artists in the past ... Very difficult but not impossible !
Moreover, I want them to be meaningful and beautiful to look at.
S&A : What do you mean by « meaningful » ?
Since the 1980s, contemporary art has become pretentious, devoid of emotions and meaningless.
Yet I think that art must above all provoke strong and positive emotions in the viewer : laughter, joy, sadness, compassion, daydreams, etc.
The art that triggers nothing is not art !
And since each of my artworks has a story, I give them each a subtitle, most importantly a coherent and understandable explanation.
So my ultimate goal, without pretense, is to return meaning to art !
S&A : So, who do you consider to be your artist masters?
The list would be much too long and boring to read ! (laughs)
However, I can mention a few who have impressed my retinal memory :The classics : Leonardo da Vinci, Michel-Ange, Raphaël, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Renoir, Courbet, Vermeer, Botticelli, Géricault, Rodin, ...
The moderns : Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Gaudí, Egon Schiele, Munch, ...
The contemporaries : Miró, Mondrian, Brâncuși, Vasarely, Calder, Klein, ...
But above all, the surrealists : Dalí et Magritte, or the naïves like the postman Cheval !
What effort went into their artworks ! What strength and energy ! What generosity and sincerity !!
S&A : So how would you define what qualifies an artist as contemporary ?
In my opinion, a true artist must :
Live for the sake of art
Work with his hands
Be sincere
- Be beauty oriented
Produce intelligent artworks that make sense
Exalt the spectator and overwhelm him with emotions
- Eschew fashion
To be in constant contradiction, including with himself
Be able to spend days, weeks, or months of effort on one piece !
Never be satisfied with his artworks, and consider them to be never finished ...
S&A : What inspires you to be so creative ?
Everything inspires me : life, love, sex, nature, human comedy, science and technology, and so on.
Some of my artworks also present what concerns me the most : the protection of animals, human overpopulation, global warming, the defense of minorities.
S&A : Why did you wait so long before you started ?
I had to wait patiently for the right time, so that people could finally understand my work.
Fortunately, I noticed that this change began in 2015 with Saatchi, Templon, Cadot, etc., who are great judges of contemporary art.
S&A : Why do you have so few artworks for sale ?
First, because I have given many away (especially to those who have modeled for me), I sold some, and I have left some as gifts where I have lived ...
Then, because in 2016, I lost all of my belongings during a move.
The hardest thing to accept was that my memories had gone up in smoke !
My mother had carefully kept some drawings and documents from my youth, and thanks to the Internet I was able to find certain photos, but I still had to recreate all of my artworks.Two years later, after a long period of depression, I finally got down to work.
S&A : So you had to redo everything, then why do you chose to sign using the pseudonym « Duchamp » ?
Indeed, I had previously signed my artworks under various pseudonyms derived from my name.
But in 2018, when I decided to dedicate the rest of my life to art, I started looking for a definitive pseudonym.
I consider that Marcel Duchamp was an excellent innovative painter and a great genius for artistic provocation.
André Breton called him « the most intelligent man of the century ».
And as I take over, in the manner of Brueghel :
- « Duchamp the Elder » brought art to the level of pure intellectualization.
- « Duchamp the Younger » now brings art back to the retinal level !
Let's not forget that the eyes are directly connected to the brain, so the psychic interpretation of the artwork happens in a second time, either subjectively, or with an explanatory text.
S&A : One last word to close ?
I want to give a medical warning for viewers :
My artworks are likely to provoke violent contortions of laughter, mirthful convulsive urinary leaks, exaggerated dual eye bulging, or intellectual transit blockage (especially among aficionados of the current artistic trends).
« That's all folks ! »
Notes and references
1. The incoherents : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incoherents
2. Présence Panchounette : fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Présence_Panchounette , (Manifeste)
3. Anti-art : en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-art
4. Although this expression was used by one of the founders of « Stuckism » , they did not create a movement with that name.
* This imaginary interview assembles all the questions people have asked me during my career.