As far as [Duchamp] was concerned, the role in society of an artist was akin to that of a philosopher; it didn’t even matter if he or she could paint or draw. An artist’s job was not to give aesthetic pleasure – designers could do that; it was to step back from the world and attempt to make sense or comment on it through the presentation of ideas that had no functional purpose other than themselves.
— Will Gompertz, What Are You Looking At? p. 10
Interesting how you came to focus on that sentence. I totally agree. NB for the record the author is Will Gompertz.
Oops.. Thanks.. I think that was an autocorrect typo…
As for the “why that sentence?”, I want to be an artist, but I’m struggling with a) making (saleable) deliverables that b) have something to say;-)