Joana Vasconcelos on the Legacy of Marcel Duchamp

“At least for me he is a big inspiration.” Joana Vasconcelos reflects on the impact of the boundary-breaking artist Marcel Duchamp.
Born in 1971, Joana Vasconcelos is a Portuguese contemporary visual artist renowned for her monumental sculptures. Drawing inspiration from everyday life, pop references, Portuguese traditions and the opulence of the Baroque, she also establishes a dialogue with artists who preceded her, such as Duchamp.
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) is arguably the most influential artist of the modern era. Duchamp experimented with Dadaism, Cubism, Surrealism, Op art and film, inventing the readymade, and paving the way for Pop, Conceptualism, and Minimalism. His artwork and ideas forever changed the artworld, and to some degree the world as a whole, in ways that we are still discovering. Global artists freely acknowledge that his work influences their artmaking. Inspired by Barbara and Aaron Levine’s promised gift of more than 35 works by Duchamp, the Hirshhorn invited artists to respond to the impact of this pioneer.
This video series is presented with “Marcel Duchamp: The Barbara and Aaron Levine Collection” and “It’s Art If I Say So: The Legacy of Marcel Duchamp in the Hirshhorn Collection.”