Art 101
Art and Intention checkpoint
The reaction of the public was that of not understanding what the artists were trying to convey. They did not understand that Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, was based on the concept of motion. In Michelangelo’s David he was making a political statement. In both works of art, part of what viewers found objectionable about them was that they (the public) did not understand what the works represented. In Michelangelo’s David, the public saw nudity. Other people saw politics and religion were being attacked. In Duchamps painting, the public I think, partially responded to the paintings name, and they did not understand that the painting was not actually of a nude person but was a “series of photographs by Etienne-Jules Marey, representing motion. The objects in the photographs were fully clothed. Etienne-Jules Marey’s photographs that went on to bring about the invention of the motion picture” (Sayre, p. 45, 2010). When I first looked at the painting of Nude Descending a Staircase, I did not see anything in it that gave me any idea of what the picture was about. On looking closer and reading the information about it, my opinion changed. I learned that his painting did have meaning, and that it had nothing to do with nude people. The motion pictures came from the work of Etienne-Jules Marey, and Duchamp saw the meaning and importance of his work.
References
Sayre, H. M. (2010). A World of Art (6th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.
References: Sayre, H. M. (2010). A World of Art (6th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.