Systematization of Marcel Duchamp’s Infrathin Concept as an Aesthetic Category

Abstract

The article analyzes the little-known concept of infrathin, introduced cryptically by Duchamp in a notebook in 1914. The artist used it at several moments subsequently in reference to particular observations of life which he grouped using this term as an ambiguous link and leaving the decoding of its content to the free interpretation of the reader. Fruit of a long conceptual path that leads to the denial of the visual, the infrathin collects multiple and varied meanings; thus its complexity makes it a quite difficult concept to explain and define. The text synthesizes the work of a number of authors versed in Duchamp’s work, and comes to the conclusion that the relationship between all the different meanings lies in a metaphysical sense concerned with the contingency of reality. Finally, it proposes a systematization that adjusts to all possible variants for a greater understanding and possible application as an artistic-aesthetic category.