Marcel Duchamp

French American artist, chess player, and inventor; key figure in avant-garde and conceptual art.

Man Ray · via Wikipedia: Marcel Duchamp · PD-US

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp was a French American artist, chess player, and inventor who helped establish the post-industrial perspective in art history.^[1][2] He is commonly regarded as a progenitor of conceptual art.^[2] His work Fountain, a urinal signed "R. Mutt 1917", is a notable example of anti-art.^[3]

Quick Facts

Birth name

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp

Born

28 July 1887

Birthplace

Blainville-Crevon, France

Died

2 October 1968

Place of death

Neuilly-sur-Seine, France

Field

Painting
sculpture
film

Movement

Cubism
Dada
conceptual art

Partner

Mary Reynolds (1929–1946); Maria Martins (1946–1951)

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

His painting Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 was exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show in New York City.^[4] In 1913, he began working as a librarian in the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève to earn a living while concentrating on his Large Glass.^[5] He emigrated to the United States in 1915, finding he was a celebrity upon arrival in New York.^[6] Duchamp's Fountain was suppressed from the Society of Independent Artists exhibit in 1917 because the committee insisted it was not art.^[7]

He spent the last 25 years of his life in New York City.^[1] Duchamp died on 2 October 1968.^[1] At the age of eight, Duchamp commenced his education at Rouen's Lycée Pierre-Corneille.^[8] Between 1904 and 1905, Duchamp was a student at the Académie Julian, yet he favored billiards over attending his courses.^[8]

What the cited sources add

A 2004 BBC News article reports that Fountain was selected as "the most influential artwork of the 20th century" by 500 art experts.^[9] The Guardian article presents research by Glyn Thompson asserting that Fountain could not have been Duchamp's idea and was instead stolen from Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.^[10] The Brooklyn Rail piece records Duchamp characterizing his period in Munich as "the scene of my complete liberation".^[11] Scholars studying Duchamp have noted the impact of Lucas Cranach the Elder on the ochre and brown palette Duchamp used in Munich.^[11]

The term "readymade" was created by Duchamp to describe ordinary manufactured items elevated to art status simply through the artist's selection.^[12]

References

Wikipedia, "Marcel Duchamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: ; Ian Chilvers & John Glaves-Smith, A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art. Oxford University Press, p. 203; "Francis M. Naumann, Marcel Duchamp, Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, MoMA, 2009", Moma.org; "Marcel Duchamp", TheArtStory.org; C (batgirl), "The Julien Levy Gallery", Chess.com, 2018-01-10 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Marcel Duchamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Duchamp, "The Creative Act", Summer 1957, p. 28; Trachtman, "Matisse & Pablo Picasso", Smithsonian, February 2003; Alberge, "'This was his revenge on art': is Marcel Duchamp's greatest work a fake?", The Guardian, 2023-10-15 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Marcel Duchamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Marcel Duchamp and the Fountain Scandal", Philadelphia Museum of Art (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Marcel Duchamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: William H. Robinson, Jordi Falgàs, Carmen Belen Lord, Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí, Cleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art ( (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Marcel Duchamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Poincaré, H. (1902) Science and Hypothesis. London: Walter Scott Publishing Co., p. xxiv.; Mink, J. (2000). Marcel Duchamp. Art as Anti-Art. Taschen Verlag. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Marcel Duchamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Icons of twentieth century photography come to Edinburgh for major Man Ray exhibition", ArtDaily. Retrieved 15 December 2013. "In 1915, whilst at Ridgefield ar (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Marcel Duchamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Cabanne, "Dialogues With Marcel Duchamp", Grand Central Publishing, 2009-07-21; Tomkins: Duchamp: A Biography. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia, "Marcel Duchamp" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Guy Pessiot, Histoire de Rouen volume 2 1900–1939 en 800 photographies , repr. Rouen: PTC, 2004, , p. 271; theartstory.org; (fr)Victoria Charles, Joseph Manca, Megan McShane, 1000 Chefs-d'œuvre de la peinture (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
"Duchamp's urinal tops art survey", BBC News, 1 December 2004. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
Alberge, "'This was his revenge on art': is Marcel Duchamp's greatest work a fake?", The Guardian, 2023-10-15. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
Naumann, "Marcel Duchamp Slept Here", The Brooklyn Rail, 6 November 2012. facts only, no text reused. brooklynrail.org
theartstory.org. facts only, no text reused. theartstory.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Marcel Duchamp (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.