To what extent can the work of Marcel Duchamp be described as “Surrealist”?

6th December 2018

Year one undergrad Modernism critical essay

Michelle Tjahjono

André Breton, From the First Manifesto of Surrealism, 1924, gives credit to Freud’s work on dreams, including the psychosexual development of human beings and the discovery of drives and desires which make up the inner life of an individual. For instance, clues like slips of the tongue and lapses stress the extent to which the mind resists the impulse to liberate its true feelings, thoughts and even the idea that “woman has an effect on it” (Breton, 1924 in Waldberg, 1971 p.1). This led to the surrealist practice known as psychic automatism where the true function of thought one intends to express from the unconscious and conscious mind is directly expressed verbally or by written word. The act of psychic automatism is dictated purely by thought which is absent from any control that reason, social or moral concern may hold. This practice aimed to mimic the methods Freud used to encourage a patient to tell him their dreams in the confidence that revealing their undisclosed desires would set them free from the reigns of the unconscious (Bradley, 1997, p.31). Subsequently, these unconscious strategies then evolved from writing in automatic poetry into a pictorial equivalent in, for instance, a painting. Marcel Duchamp explored the role of dreams, strong negative emotions and the indifferent relationship with his mother to produce the piece, The Bride Stripped Bare By The Bachelors (1912), (The Bride Stripped) using the canvas as a means to manifest these strong feelings and thoughts (Seigel, 1997, p.200). This is inspired by the Freudian technique of psychoanalysis which aims to “release repressed emotions and experiences” (Mcleod, 2007). It is also a technique used by Duchamp and many other surrealists which could be argued, describes his work as highly surrealist. However, this essay also touches upon why Duchamp distanced himself from the surrealist groups which could be argued, led to his work being described as more conceptual, by turning away from practices which did not privilege ideas over aesthetics (Seigel, 1997 p. 202).

In this essay, I will be discussing the extent to which Marcel Duchamp’s work can be described as “Surrealist”. Although Marcel Duchamp’s work has been known to revolutionise the very definition of art through the controversy in the concept known as the “readymade”, much of his work has been inspired by dreams, erotic fantasies, obsessions, surprises and dangers- themes which are central to Surrealism.

Figure 1. The Bride Stripped Bare By The Bachelors (Duchamp, 1912)

One piece, which describes the work of Marcel Duchamp as an artist who sought to express art connected to the unconscious is The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors (1912), which carries a surrealist image and recognises thoughts or imagery in the context of a dream (Freud, 1900). Duchamp returned one night, heavily drunk from a public house and dreamt the bride had become an enormous beetle- like creature that tortured him intensely using its elytra (the two wing cases of a beetle) (https://www.dictionary.com, 2018). Despite the repressed male fantasy to bring the female form out of clothing, the dream had also been a representation of Duchamp’s state of mind when he went to Munich and one that revealed his deep and repressed feelings of anger (Seigel, 1997, p. 200). Freud explained repression as the “unconscious mechanism employed by the ego to keep disturbing or threatening thoughts from becoming conscious” (Freud, 1894-1896; Anna 1936, cited in Mcleod, 2007, pg.1). After this dream, the theme of the aggressive and violent relationship between the bride and bachelors formed in his mind. The bachelors on each side pierce the bride in the centre with a spear and rod- like- weapons or extensions that reach toward her in several areas of her body (rods implying the impulse for violence with arms of weapons or the impulse for sexual stimulation with phallic arousal or both) (Seigel, 1997 p. 201). Furthermore, Duchamp may have unconsciously associated the bride with family pictures, especially where he experienced a lack of sympathy from his mother.

The process of painting acts as sublimation (“satisfying an impulse, e.g. aggression, with a substitute object, in a socially acceptable way”) which takes place by displacing this strong frustration into his piece, The Bride Stripped (Seigel, 1997, p.202). Furthermore, other frustrations that motivated this piece consciously or unconsciously were the bachelors being symbols of those who controlled the Salon de Independants. The society’s board of directors associated Fountain, 1917, with the process of bodily waste, describing the piece as “indecent” and considered far from a “work of art”. The directors proceeded to exclude Duchamp’s submission from the Society’s Inaugural exhibition that opened to the public on 10th April 1917 (Howarth, 2000). The piece projects the suppressed frustrations Duchamp felt toward the world that “dressed itself up in the purity of art” (Seigel, 1997 p. 67) due to the censorship of his work. Therefore, this suppressed Frustration that was fuelled by several sources became free of conscious rational control as it manifested in The Bride Stripped (Adams, L, Szaluta, J, 1996). One could argue that Duchamp’s work can be described as highly surrealist based on the Freudian methods that surrealists practiced where the true function of thought (his frustration) from his unconscious mind was expressed in this piece.

The process of sublimation (originating from Freud) that can be argued was taking place in Duchamp’s life at the time due to his suppressed frustration, could have been said to be responsible for the unusual form that the bride and bachelors were expressed as- the insects (Adams, L, Szaluta, J, 1996). Not that sublimation is “satisfying an impulse (e.g. aggression) with a substitute object. In a socially acceptable way.” This definition differs from displacement which is “satisfying an impulse (e.g. aggression) with a substitute object.” One can argue that displacement does not account for the boundaries of acceptable social behaviour, so “satisfying an impulse” of aggression can pose as a danger to others whether sublimation does not (Freud, 1894-1896; Anna 1936, cited in Mcleod, 2007, pg.1). Freud claims it is common that logic and reasonable explanations that usually assist our mind when attempting to understand a dream are lacking, so our mind compensates by representing these feelings and thoughts symbolically, through metaphors or pictorially (Freud, 1900). In Marcel Duchamp’s case, he attempts to express his frustration and violent impulses through the relationship between the bride and bachelors (Seigel, 1997). In addition to this, Freud claims that unless we understand the reasoning behind the distortion, displacement explains why we are so disorientated by the unusual content in the dream (Freud, 1900). The insect-like form the bride now transformed into, inspired the dream that tortured him (Seigel, 1997 p. 201).

Furthermore, the strong emotions towards the bride links to Duchamp’s family pictures which bring back childhood memories of his experiences in relation to his mother. The piece associated his dream with that of a wish- fulfilment or desire to receive his mother’s love. It is then assumed that the dream brought satisfaction to Duchamp where he resolves his relationship with his mother (Seigel, 1997 p.200). However, Freud states “if the dream is a wish-fulfilment, painful experiences ought to be impossible in the dream”, (Freud, 1920) which accounts for why there is an overwhelming presence of violence between the bachelors and the bride, which reflects thoughts in the dream context, where he expressed much of his frustration of this. Freud’s explanation for the complication of the dream being unsuccessful to produce a wish-fulfilment is that essentially, a wish- fulfilment should bring pleasure to the dreamer. However, the dreamer has a strange relationship with his wishes due to the dreamer deliberately rejecting the opportunity to fulfil his wishes. Moreover, Freud makes it clear that the fulfilments give Duchamp or the dreamer no pleasure, only the opposite. He also stresses that the wish- fulfilment cannot be present in distorted dreams and can only be analysed and defined as a wish-fulfilment once the dream has been interpreted. Furthermore, the wishes in the distorted dreams are prohibited by the force of the mind known as the dream censor. The censor is aware that their own existence first started the very cause of the dream distortion and the reason for the censor to act (Freud, 1920).

On the other hand, even though there were times where Duchamp preoccupied himself with the mechanisms of desire and the nature of human sexuality in pieces like The Bride Stripped, that aligns his work with that of Surrealists, he strongly refused to be associated with any avant-garde movement in art or literature. Instead, he insisted that art should be driven predominantly by ideas above work and therefore his work is described more as conceptual rather than Surrealist. (The Art Story Contributors, 2018). For instance, The Bride Stripped was executed on a large scale and gathered ideas developed over long periods. Duchamp aimed to present the work which did not serve a purpose as an aesthetic manifesto and aimed to prevent purely visual responses (Ades, D, Cox, N, Hopkins, D, 1999). In 1957, he claimed, “I never had the enthusiasm of the professional painter; with me, it was the idea that counted more” (Duchamp, 1912 cited in Seigel, 1997 p.202). By privileging the idea, he was able to turn away from producing visual images using paint or other mediums which meant he could retain his ideas in his mind (Seigel, 1997 p.202). This differs highly from Surrealism which sought to express one’s true thoughts directly from the unconscious or conscious mind verbally, by written word or other mediums such as painting (Bradley, 1997, p.31). He further informed us that “Every picture has to exist in the mind before it is put on canvas, and it always loses something when it is turned into paint. I prefer to see my pictures without that muddying” (Duchamp, 1912, cited in Seigel, 1997 p.202). In this way, he used his art for a purpose beyond itself by valuing the concept of freedom that cannot be experienced through direct interaction with the world. For example, in The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even (In the Large Glass) (1915 to 1923), the spaces that are occupied are worlds in themselves and the objects (including the bride and bachelors) are viewed only as symbols. The thoughts from his frustration that stand take no material presence and remain pure as it was in his mind. The relationship between the bride and bachelors is more than his suppressed frustration and impulse for violence (Seigel, 1997 p.202).

In 1913, he declared the abandonment of painting altogether and manufactured several ready-mades. Duchamp claimed that the element of choice makes the objects in the art and therefore, the art, valuable. He found everyday objects, such as a snow shovel, a urinal, a bicycle wheel, or a bottle-drier which he claimed could elevate into a work of art, therefore breaking down the hierarchy of valued art and degrading the masterpieces to the level of mundane objects (Short, 1980). The found object, for Duchamp, was encountered and randomly viewed with indifference, but Surrealists viewed the found object (the Bride and Bachelors for instance) as the object(s) of passion. Where the object of passion was implying a metaphor or concealing true thoughts, desires or frustrations. Furthermore, Duchamp had no aesthetic intentions in his Readymades, preventing himself from making work that pleased the eye, but Surrealists returned to the aestheticism of art, making works that desired to be looked at and analysed (Willette, 2011).

In conclusion, The Bride Stripped explores Surrealist ideas and techniques derived from Freud through psychoanalysing dreams and thus the ability to psychoanalyse Duchamp’s work. The Bride Stripped was a clear example of Duchamp using a surrealist technique of sublimation, which reflects that of his relationship with his mother- a wish-fulfilment and his suppressed frustrations towards those who denied his work. Andre Bréton, the leader of the Surrealist group had even written an overview of Duchamp’s works in 1934 which stressed the unique importance of Duchamp’s art for the future direction of Surrealist groups. Although Duchamp claimed he did not affiliate with these groups, he did continue to participate in an exhibition of Surrealist objects at Galerie Ratton, Paris, designed an entrance to Breton’s gallery Gradiva in Paris, (based on the contours of a couple embracing), designed Exposition Internationale du Surrealisme, organised by Andre Bréton and Paul Eluard des Beaux also in Paris. It can be argued that Duchamp himself was inspired by Surrealist work when creating his last major project, Étant Donnés (1946-66) an installation incorporating the powerful erotic fantasies which were also central to Surrealism (modernamuseet, 2015). However, one does need to take into account that even though his work was periodically close to that of Surrealist artists, he remained independent by privileging the idea instead of producing images drawn from his mind, which led to the ‘muddying’ of his idea i.e. he chose to value the pure form of ideas and thoughts exclusively. Overall, Duchamp’s piece The Bride Stripped can be described as highly Surrealist as it recognises thoughts and imagery in the context of a dream.

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