Oh My Love Gasoline

I found listening about Duchamp and viewing his art interesting. The fact that he finds it important to combine words and images gives him more dimension then other artists. Most artist speak through their pieces, giving no other explanation for viewers, making it a little odd that Duchamp felt the need to give his viewers a play by play instruction booklet on his piece. The picture, however, is so abstract that it was nice to have such deep insight to what it is representing (but is it really abstract then if you know what it is about?). I find Duchamp a lot less pertinacious then I would have without an explanation. Abstract paintings are like inside jokes; you want to like them and get them but don't and end up just finding them slightly irritating. Having an explanation let me in on the joke and helped me appreciate the piece more. I liked The Bride more with the commentary. There is so much humor and satire in the picture that would be lost without Duchamp's explanation, and would be a shame. On a whole, I find that there is more depth in this picture once it is explained. Although, I did not like how in his explanation he included plans and ideas which he did not use in the piece; it was confusing. Once explained I found the mechanical representation of men and women, marriage in general, very entertaining and smart. Ducham emphasized the importance of veiwer interaction, which, with the combination of words and visuals he achieves.