barrachunky.wo rdpre ss.

co m Ivn Pajares

http://barrachunky.wo rdpress.co m/2011/09/22/el-acto -creativo -po r-marcel-duchamp/

THE CREATIVE ACT

by Marcel Duchamp Let us consider two important f actors, the two poles of the creation of art: the artist on the one hand, and on the other the spectator who later becomes the posterity. To all appearances, the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, f rom the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing. If we give the attributes of a medium to the artist, we must then deny him the state of consciousness on the esthetic plane about what he is doing or why he is doing it. All his decisions in the artistic execution of the work rest with pure intuition and cannot be translated into a self -analysis, spoken or written, or even thought out. T.S. Eliot, in his essay on Tradition and Individual Talent, writes: T he more perf ect the artist, the more completely separate in him will be the man who suf f ers and the mind which creates; the more perf ectly will the mind digest and transmute the passions which are its material. Millions of artists create; only a f ew thousands are discussed or accepted by the spectator and many less again are consecrated by posterity. In the last analysis, the artist may shout f rom all the roof tops that he is a genius: he will have to wait f or the verdict of the spectator in order that his declarations take a social value and that, f inally, posterity includes him in the primers of Artist History. I know that this statement will not meet with the approval of many artists who ref use this mediumistic role and insist on the validity of their awareness in the creative act yet, art history has consistently decided upon the virtues of a work of art through considerations completely divorced f rom the rationalized explanations of the artist. If the artist, as a human being, f ull of the best intentions toward himself and the whole world, plays no role at all in the judgment of his own work, how can one describe the phenomenon which prompts the spectator to react critically to the work of art? In other words, how does this reaction come about? T his phenomenon is comparable to a transf erence f rom the artist to the spectator in the f orm of an esthetic osmosis taking place through the inert matter, such as pigment, piano or marble.

EL ACTO CREATIVO
por Marcel Duchamp Tomemos en consideracin dos f actores importantes, los dos polos de la creacin artstica: el artista por un lado, y por el otro el espectador que devendr la posteridad. Aparentemente, el artista acta como un mdium que, desde el laberinto ms all del tiempo y el espacio, busca su camino hacia un claro. Si consideramos al artista un mdium, debemos negarle la capacidad consciente de saber, en el plano esttico, qu est haciendo o por qu lo est haciendo. Todas sus decisiones durante la ejecucin de su arte quedan en pura intuicin y no pueden traducirse en auto-anlisis, hablado o escrito, o siquiera pensado. En su ensayo La tradicin y el talento individual, T.S. Elliot escribe: Mientras ms perf ecto el artista, ms completamente separados estarn dentro de l el hombre que suf re y la mente que crea; slo as esta ltima digerir y transmutar a la perf eccin las pasiones que componen su materia. Millones de artistas crean; slo unos pocos miles son discutidos o aceptados por el espectador y menos an son consagrados por la posteridad. Segn este ltimo anlisis, el artista puede gritar desde todos los tejados que es un genio: tendr que esperar el veredicto del espectador para que sus declaraciones tomen valor socialmente y, f inalmente, la posteridad le incluya entre los grandes de la Historia del Arte. S que sto no merecer la aprobacin de muchos artistas que reniegan de la condicin de mdiums e insisten en la validez de su conciencia del acto creativo - sin embargo, la historia del arte ha decidido sobre las virtudes de la obra de arte a travs de consideraciones completamente divergentes con las explicaciones racionales del artista. Si el artista, como ser humano, lleno de las mejores intenciones hacia s mismo y el mundo entero, no juega ningn papel en el juicio de su propio trabajo cmo puede uno describir el f enmeno que impulsa al espectador a reaccionar crticamente a la obra de arte? O dicho de otro modo cmo se produce dicha reaccin?

But bef ore we go f urther, I want to clarif y our understanding of the word art to be sure, without any attempt at a def inition. What I have in mind is that art may be bad, good or indif f erent, but, whatever adjective is used, we must call it art, and bad art is still art in the same way that a bad emotion is still an emotion. T heref ore, when I ref er to art coef f icient, it will be understood that I ref er not only to great art, but I am trying to describe the subjective mechanism which produces art in the raw state ltat brut bad, good or indif f erent. In the creative act, the artist goes f rom intention to realization through a chain of totally subjective reactions. His struggle toward the realization is a series of ef f orts, pains, satisf action, ref usals, decisions, which also cannot and must not be f ully self -conscious, at least on the esthetic plane. T he result of this struggle is a dif f erence between the intention and its realization, a dif f erence which the artist is not aware of . Consequently, in the chain of reactions accompanying the creative act, a link is missing. T his gap, representing the inability of the artist to express f ully his intention, this dif f erence between what he intended to realize and did realize, is the personal art coef f icient contained in the work. In other words, the personal art coef f icient is like an arithmetical relation between the unexpressed but intended and the unintentionally expressed. To avoid a misunderstanding, we must remember that this art coef f icient is a personal expression of art ltat brut, that is, still in a raw state, which must be ref ined as pure sugar f rom molasses by the spectator; the digit of this coef f icient has no bearing whatsoever on his verdict. T he creative act takes another aspect when the spectator experiences the phenomenon of transmutation: through the change f rom inert matter into a work of art, an actual transubtantiation has taken place, and the role of the spectator is to determine the weight of the work on the esthetic scale. All in all, the creative act is not perf ormed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualif ication and thus adds his contribution to the creative act. T his becomes even more obvious when posterity gives a f inal verdict and sometimes rehabilitates f orgotten artists.

muerta, como el pigmento, un piano o el mrmol. Pero antes de continuar, quiero clarif icar nuestro entendimiento de la palabra arte sin, por supuesto, intentar una def inicin. Lo que me parece es que el arte puede ser malo, bueno o indif erente, pero, sea cual sea el adjetivo, debemos llamarlo arte, y el mal arte siguie siendo arte igual que un mal sentimiento sigue siendo un sentimiento. Entonces, cuando me ref iero al coef iciente de arte, se entiende que no slo me ref iero al gran arte, sino que trato de describir el mecanismo subjetivo que produce arte en bruto ltat brut malo, bueno o indif erente. En el acto creativo, el artista transita desde las intenciones a la realizacin a travs de una cadena de reacciones totalmente subjetivas. Su pelea hacia la consumacin es una serie de esf uerzos, dolores, satisf acciones, negaciones, decisiones, que no pueden y no deben ser plenamente conscientes, al menos en el plano esttico. El resultado de esta batalla es la dif erencia entre la intencin inicial y su consumacin, una dif erencia de la que el artista no est al tanto. Consecuentemente, en la cadena de reacciones que acompaa al acto creativo f alta un eslabn. sta f alta, que representa la incapacidad del artista de expresar completamente sus intenciones, sta dif erencia entre lo que pretenda conseguir y lo conseguido, es el coef iciente de arte personal que contiene la obra. En otras palabras, el coef iciente de arte personal es como una relacin aritmtica entre lo inexpresado pero pretendido y lo inconscientemente expresado. Para evitar equvocos, debemos recordar que este coef iciente de arte es una expresin personal de arte ltat brut, esto es, todava en bruto, que debe ref inarse como azcar puro de remolacha por el espectador; el nmero de ste coef iciente no tiene inf luencia alguna en su veredicto. El acto creativo toma otro aspecto cuando el espectador experimenta el f enmeno de la transmutacin: a travs del cambio de materia inerte en obra de arte, una verdadera transubstanciacin ha tenido lugar, y el papel del espectador es determinar el peso de la obra en la escala esttica. De manera general, el acto creativo no lo realiza slo el artista; el espectador pone a la obra en contacto con el mundo exterior descif rando e interpretando su cualif icacin interna y as aade su contribucin al acto creativo. Esto resulta an ms obvio cuando la posteridad da un veredicto f inal y rehabilita, a veces, a un artista olvidado.