Bottle Rack _{(Marcel Duchamp, Dadaism)}

The Bottle Rack (also called Bottle Dryer or Hedgehog) is a proto-Dada artwork created in 1914 by Marcel Duchamp. This readymade did not have the serious tone of European Dada works, which criticized the violence of World War I, and instead focused on a more nonsensical nature, chosen purely on the basis of a "visual indifference".

Without any actual modifications by the artist, the Bottle Rack is iconic for being Duchamp's first, "true" readymade. While Duchamp asserted that his readymades were done without any specific reason, art critics contend that the piece has sexual undertones of a Freudian nature. Critics suggest that the metal spikes represent the male genitalia, and that the absence of bottles is a reference to Duchamp being a bachelor at the time, a theme they claim is repeatedly conveyed throughout his works.

Duchamp's Other Works