Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp, a French artist born July 28, 1887, brother of the artist Raymond Duchamp-Villon and half brother of the painter Jacques Villon-Duchamp. Marcel Duchamp began to paint in 1908, his work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements; considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century. Duchamp’s output influenced the development of post World War 1 Western Art. He painted very little after 1915, although he continued until 1923 to work on his masterpiece “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even” (1923, Philadelphia Museum of Art), an abstract work, also known as The Large Glass, composed in oil and wire on glass, that was enthusiastically received by the surrealists.
Duchamp was the artist who broke down the boundaries between works of art and everyday objects. His irreverence for conventional aesthetic standards led him to devise his famous ready-mades and heralded an artistic revolution. Duchamp’s ready-made art consisted of everyday objects, such as a urinal, and a bottle rack. His bicycle wheel, an example of kinetic art was mounted on a kitchen stool. After this short creative period, Duchamp was content to let others develop the themes he had originated; his pervasive influence was crucial to the development of surrealism, Dada and pop art.
Duchamp became an American citizen in 1955; he passed away in Paris on October 1, 1968.