Breaking ground: how Marcel Duchamp turned an ordinary shovel into one of the most extraordinary objects in the history of art 

In November 1915, the French artist Marcel Duchamp approached a hardware store on New York City’s Columbus Avenue alongside Jean Crotti, the Swiss-born painter with whom he shared his Lincoln Arcade studio. The two were struck by a seemingly endless stack of snow shovels lined up for the impending winter.

While the sight would have been commonplace for the average New Yorker, Duchamp was markedly less familiar. Having only arrived in New York two months prior, the Frenchman would later admit that the pair had never encountered a snow shovel before. Intrigued, the two left the store with a large shovel proudly slung over Crotti’s shoulder.

Back at their studio, Duchamp inscribed the words ‘In Advance of the Broken Arm’ followed by his signature ‘d’après Marcel Duchamp’ on the shovel’s wooden handle directly above its galvanized-iron blade — an act that would come to be considered one of the most revolutionary in the history of art. The original 1915 shovel, now lost to time, hung suspended from the artist’s studio ceiling as a fully designated work of art.

While Duchamp had explored the idea of elevating everyday objects to the status of fine art as early as 1913, the snow shovel he purchased at the Manhattan hardware store was the first work of its kind that the artist made while living in the United States. It was also arguably the first such object to which he applied the term ‘readymade’.

Few works of art would come to alter the course of art history as significantly as Duchamp’s readymades. On 19 November, a rare example of In Advance of the Broken Arm will be offered as part of Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale in New York. Hailing from the family of conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth, the work presents a unique opportunity to acquire the iconic sculpture.

‘Duchamp readymades are the rarest of the rare,’ says Max Carter, Vice Chairman of 20th/21st Century Art at Christie’s. ‘And In Advance of the Broken Arm is in some ways the purest expression of the readymade idea.’ A version of In Advance of the Broken Arm has not appeared at auction in more than 20 years and the majority are in major museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. ‘For admirers of Duchamp — and of the longtime owner of the present example, the conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth — this is one of those truly generational opportunities,’ adds Carter.

Advancing the art object

In a 1916, Duchamp wrote a letter to his sister, Suzanne, explaining that he had begun to reclassify commonplace objects as artworks, referring to them for the first time as ‘readymades’. ‘I sign them and I think of an inscription for them in English’, he explained, noting ‘a large snow shovel on which I have inscribed at the bottom: In Advance of the Broken Arm’.

Three years earlier, while still in Paris, Duchamp had begun experimenting with found objects as total works of art. ‘The Bicycle Wheel is my first readymade, so much so that at first it wasn’t even called a readymade’, the artist recalled of his 1913 creation, wherein an upended bicycle wheel was fastened to the top of a kitchen stool. The following year he purchased his famous Bottle Rack and, in a radical move, declared it an artwork without altering the object at all.

However, it was only after moving to New York that his readymades realised their full potential. By selecting, titling and signing the mass-produced snow shovel, the artist boldly transformed the common object into a work of art by his own volition.

‘It’s an incredibly pivotal moment where an idea becomes the content of the piece’, Imogen Kerr, Co-Head of Christie’s 20th Century Evening Sale, explains. ‘Except for his signature, which the artist effectively used to re-brand the object as “a Duchamp”, his hand is completely removed from the creation of these benign, utilitarian objects. For the first time, it’s not about the craft, it’s about the idea.’

Paving the way for conceptual artists

The readymade redefined what art could be in the 20th century, opening the art world to an entirely new generation of artists. To this day, the ideas that Duchamp put forth over a century ago continue to inspire creators to expand the notion of art.

Duchamp’s readymades are prized by artists, collectors and institutions alike. The present version of In Advance of the Broken Arm comes from the collection of conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth, where it has been for the past two decades. Minimalist sculptor Donald Judd owned a work from the same edition, which is now housed in his eponymous foundation.

In his writings, Kosuth — known for such artworks as One in Three Chairs and even One in Three Shovels — divided the art historical canon into two distinct chapters: before Duchamp and after.

‘The event that made conceivable the realization that it was possible to “speak another language” and still make sense in art was Marcel Duchamp’s first unassisted readymade,’ Kosuth wrote in his 1969 essay, ‘Art After Philosophy’. ‘With the unassisted readymade, art changed its focus from the form of the language to what was being said.… This change — one from “appearance” to “conception” — was the beginning of “modern” art and the beginning of conceptual art. All art (after Duchamp) is conceptual (in nature) because art only exists conceptually.’

That an ordinary shovel, bottle rack, bicycle wheel or even a urinal could create such a seismic shift in the balance of art was extraordinary, and the impact of In Advance of the Broken Arm continues to reverberate today. ‘Even after all this time, people still find it challenging’, says Kerr. ‘It’s still controversial and thought provoking. It’s a bold symbol of what would come after.’