ABSTRACT
Comb is the one apparent exception to the new understanding of the readymade. The comb is relatively small, materially simple and unassuming, its form eliciting an explicit lack of visual interest. The exception is when they are functional, used to attach the comb to another element or device – as is the case with the one used as Comb, which is actually the comb part of a cattle comb that attached with screws or bolts to a handle through the two holes. Of all his readymades, Duchamp singled out Comb as the one he believed was most successful. Almost all the readymades went through similar transformations during Duchamp’s lifetime, becoming highly aestheticized, even treated as art objects. To experience the readymades in the latter half of the 20th century up to the present is to encounter a decidedly aesthetic object with little to no trace of Duchamp’s desired indifference.
