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readymade

or read·y-made

[ red-ee-meyd ]

noun

  1. an everyday manufactured object, as a bottle rack, a snow shovel, a urinal, or a comb, that may by the creative act of selection and designation by an artist attain status as a work of art: associated almost exclusively with the aesthetic activities of Marcel Duchamp during the period 1915 to 1917.


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Word History and Origins

Origin of readymade1

< French < English; term introduced by Duchamp in 1915

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Example Sentences

Or maybe it's a kind of remade readymade, and gets its power from using Disney as "serious" contemporary art.

It counts as a  readymade, of sorts, because like Duchamp's famous urinal it transplants a functional object into the art world.

I think of this piece as a new Duchampian sub-species you might call a "hand-made readymade".

They acquire all learning in their mother's womb, and bring it into the world readymade.

And that was devoted to what—readymade clothes, ski clothes, and that sort of thing?

When a readymade definition, admirably rendered, is at your command, why be at the pains of making a new one for yourself?

He spent the time surfing readymade coasters and checking the intranet for engineer availability.

But he couldn't get even the cheapest readymade dress-suit for fourteen dollars.

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