The Ready Made
What is a ready-made?
"Everyday object selected and designated as art. The name was coined by Marcel Duchamp, whose first ready-mades included a snow shovel that he picked up on a snowy day in New York, and a wheel mounted on a stool (1913). They represented a protest against the excessive importance attached to works of art. Duchamp's anti-aesthetic gestures made him one of the leading Dadaists of his day, and his ready-made concept, though widely regarded for decades as an insult to art, was adapted by such later artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns."
-The Miriam Webster dictionary
Introduce the Dada movement and the ready made with this fun, ready-made video clip from the Kahn Academy
Duchamps Shovel: Art as Concept
Ready Made Activity
After watching this video, create your own ready made and present it to the class, be prepared to defend it as an "art work"! Title your work. ( check out the fun activity on Titling Work here. You could even stage an auction of the works for fun, see which pieces are convincing enough to hold value.
You will realize that the ability to discuss and defend your ideas may carry more weight than the actual piece itself. What does this tell us about conceptual art?
That the idea is more important than the thing.
This activity may not produce great art but it does teach conceptual thinking, and it makes a good TOK and Art discussion about concept but also about value