ABSTRACT
Nowadays, it is quite common to remark that theory and practice are two different things. For many artists - and art historians - theory is nothing more than mere speculation. Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) considered his paintings and ‘ready-mades’ the practical productions of a theory that he was thinking about and working with. 1 In 1972, Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) outlined this modern conception of theory by exhibiting his Plastische Theorie on a blackboard, as if his ‘theory’ was in fact a kind of schoolroom course [Fig. 4]. 2 In this context, theory describes first of all an intellectual and abstract quality, that serves the purpose, according to Arthur C. Danto, of legitimising soap boxes as a work of art, like the Brillo Boxes (1964) by Andy Warhol (1928-1987). 3
