Seurat In The Eyes Of Duchamp

Duchamp praised Seurat’s method of pointillism,and believed that this technique separated the painter’s "hand" and "mind".His concepts of "anti-retina","artisan" and"infrathin" were also closely related with this separation.Duchamp thought that the tube of paint were also ready-made products.He found out the importance of audience between Seurat’s paintings and the tube of paint,and on this basis led to the art of ready-made.However,from the paintings of Seurat and his overall painting strategy,we can find out that Duchamp only saw a part of the artistic contribution of Seurat.There is a deviation between the Seurat in Duchamp s eyes and the "real" Seurat.In fact,Seurat’s pointillism actually has a richer connotation and intention.This misunderstanding comes from the misinterpretation of Paul Signac and Felix Feneon to Seurat.They overemphasized the importance of artist’s idea in pointillism,and excessively denounce the "hand" and material in painting.At the same time,under the influence of "anxiety of influence",Duchamp wanted to get rid of the influence of the history of Western painting,and to search a new development path for art,so he"misread" Seurat.In the vision of modern art history,this kind of biased understanding has promoted Duchamp’s artistic turn.He chose to abandon painting,turned his way from painting to ready-made,from technical art to conceptual art,all closely connected with the inspiration of Seurat.