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The term ready-made emerged from the United States in reference to manufactured goods

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The term ready-made emerged from the United States in reference to manufactured goods. The term was used to distinguish the manufactured good from those made by hand. However, Duchamp defined ready-mades in art as ordinary objects chosen by an artist and modified to a level of having the dignity of artwork. The most important concept was that the artist had specifically selected the object under modification. Duchamp’s ready-mades were based on visual indifference. Therefore, he used them to express humor, ambiguity, and irony. He was also specific to highlight that through ready-mades, he intended to get away from himself. Ready-mades can be categorized into different levels. Andre Breton played a critical role in defining the concept of Duchamp by highlighting that ready-mades needed the artists to elevate the dignity of a normal object. Notably, Breton also linked ready-mades to surrealism, which focussed on the juxtapositioning of images as an artist expressed the creativity in the unconscious mind (Antliff 57).

Andre Breton is one of the artists who responded to Duchamp’s ready-mades. Breton receives the recognition for developing the surrealist art movement in the 1920s. According to him, surrealism served the need for artists to embrace a new form of expression in which the subconscious mind played critical roles in determining the works of an artist. According to Breton, previous artists had focused on the conscious mind in the development of their arts. However, Breton developed a new concept. Breton was impressed with Duchamp’s ready-mades because Duchamp had rejected retinal art and focused on conceptual art.