Marcel Duchamp | Biography & Artwork

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data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcel-Duchamp">Marcel Duchamp</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/biography/Marcel-Duchamp">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref1921"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/biography/Marcel-Duchamp#ref1921">Early years</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref1922"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/biography/Marcel-Duchamp#ref1922">Farewell to art</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref1923"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><div class="ml-25"></div><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/biography/Marcel-Duchamp/Legacy">Legacy</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcel-Duchamp/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/Marcel-Duchamp">Quick Facts & Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a class="section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcel-Duchamp/images-videos">Images</a> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 "> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex overflow-hidden text-nowrap ml-15"> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/46/131846-050-9DFD2EBA/Marcel-Duchamp.jpg" data-href="/media/1/172862/128248" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/46/131846-004-CFACB475/Marcel-Duchamp.jpg" alt="Duchamp, Marcel" height="50" /> </a> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/24/181724-050-67D779F6/Fountain-replica-original-Marcel-Duchamp-1917.jpg" data-href="/media/1/172862/212106" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/24/181724-004-5A9012EF/Fountain-replica-original-Marcel-Duchamp-1917.jpg" alt="Marcel Duchamp: Fountain" height="50" /> </a> <a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/46/181746-050-134E3868/Fountain-Marcel-Duchamp-photograph-Alfred-Stieglitz-1917.jpg" data-href="/media/1/172862/208744" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/46/181746-004-CF81315D/Fountain-Marcel-Duchamp-photograph-Alfred-Stieglitz-1917.jpg" alt="Duchamp, Marcel: Fountain" height="50" /> </a> </div> <button disabled class="prev-button js-prev-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-blue " aria-label="Previous"> <span class="material-icons md-24" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_left"></span> </button> <button disabled class="next-button js-next-button position-absolute btn btn-circle shadow btn-blue " aria-label="Next"> <span class="material-icons md-24" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></span> </button> </div> </div> <div class="mb-30 tlr-student-links"> <div class="text-gray-900 p-5 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-10"> For Students </div> <div 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Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). </div> <div class="type-menu"> <label for="feedback-type" class="label mb-10">Feedback Type</label> <select id="feedback-type" class="form-select mb-30" name="feedbackTypeId" required> <option value="" selected="selected">Select a type (Required)</option> <option value="1">Factual Correction</option> <option value="2">Spelling/Grammar Correction</option> <option value="3">Link Correction</option> <option value="4">Additional Information</option> <option value="5">Other</option> </select> </div> <label for="feedback" class="label mb-10">Your Feedback</label> <textarea id="feedback" class="form-control mb-30" name="feedback" maxlength="3000" rows="7" required></textarea> <button class="btn btn-blue" type="submit">Submit Feedback</button> </form> <div class="success-messaging d-none mt-30"> <div class="title">Thank you for your feedback</div> <p>Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.</p> </div> </div> </div> <div class="md-websites-modal size-lg d-none"> <div class="md-modal-body"> <div class="h2 font-serif pb-15 border-bottom font-weight-bold"> External Websites </div> <div class="pb-20"> <ul class="list-unstyled mt-20 lh-lg"> <li><a class="external" href="https://artincontext.org/marcel-duchamp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Art in Context - Marcel Duchamp - Explore Marcel Duchamp's Art and Interesting Life</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.theartstory.org/artist/duchamp-marcel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">The Art Story - Biography of Marcel Duchamp</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.artnet.com/artists/marcel-duchamp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Artnet - Marcel Duchamp</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/duch/hd_duch.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">The Met - Biography of Marcel Duchamp</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://aaep1600.osu.edu/book/01_Duchamp.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Ohio State University - Marcel Duchamp</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/dada-and-surrealism/dada2/a/marcel-duchamp-and-the-viewer" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Khan Academy - Marcel Duchamp and the Viewer</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/oct/15/conceptualist-art-fountain-is-fake-say-historians-marcel-duchamp" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">The Guardian - ‘This was his revenge on art’: is Marcel Duchamp’s greatest work a fake?</a></li> <li><a class="external" href="https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/marcel-duchamp" target="_blank" rel="noopener ">Guggenheim - Biography of Marcel Duchamp</a></li> </ul> </div> <div class="md-websites-ebk-title">Britannica Websites</div> <div class="md-websites-ebk-subtitle">Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.</div> <ul class="list-unstyled bps-topic-web-sites lh-lg"> <li><a class="external" href="https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Marcel-Duchamp/274075" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marcel Duchamp - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="toc-header-marker"></div> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 js-header-ai-ask-button d-none btn-sm btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 mr-0 mr-lg-10 ml-5 ml-sm-10 ml-lg-0 p-10"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> <div class="caption alternate-titles">Also known as: Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp</div> <div class="md-byline module-spacing "> <div class="font-serif font-12"> <span class="written-by text-gray-700"> Written by </span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor" href="/contributor/Robert-Lebel/1707" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">Robert Lebel</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 clamp-description text-black">Art expert, critic, and writer. Author of <i>On Marcel Duchamp</i> and others.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Robert Lebel</span></div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2024-11-22T00:00:00CST" >Nov 22, 2024</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Marcel-Duchamp/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="qf-title font-weight-bold font-14 mb-10 text-center"> Quick Facts</div> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>In full: </dt> <dd>Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Born: </dt> <dd>July 28, 1887, Blainville, <a href="/place/France">France</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Died: </dt> <dd>October 2, 1968, Neuilly (aged 81)</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Also Known As: </dt> <dd>Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp</dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Founder: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/Societe-Anonyme">Société Anonyme</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class="facts-item-none d-none"> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Notable Works: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/Bicycle-Wheel">“Bicycle Wheel”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Etant-donnes-1-la-chute-deau-2-le-gaz-declairage">“Étant donnés: 1. la chute d’eau, 2. le gaz d’éclairage”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Fountain-by-Duchamp">“Fountain”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Le-Passage-de-la-Vierge-a-la-Mariee">“Le Passage de la Vierge à la Mariée”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Mariee">“Mariée”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Nude-Descending-a-Staircase-No-2">“Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2)”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Pharmacy-by-Duchamp">“Pharmacy”</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/The-Large-Glass-or-The-Bride-Stripped-Bare-by-Her-Bachelors-Even">“The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)”</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class="facts-item-none d-none"> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Movement / Style: </dt> <dd><a href="/art/Cubism">Cubism</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/Dada">Dada</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/Orphism">Orphism</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/Surrealism">Surrealism</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/ready-made">ready-made</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/Section-dOr">Section d’Or</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/Marcel-Duchamp"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> <button class="facts-list-show-more-btn mt-15 p-0 mx-auto btn font-14 d-block font-weight-normal"> <span class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_more"></span> <span class="show-more-label">Show More</span> </button> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref66729"></span>Marcel Duchamp</strong> (born July 28, 1887, Blainville, France—died October 2, 1968, Neuilly) was a French artist who broke down the boundaries between works of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/visual-arts" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">art</a> and everyday objects. After the sensation caused by <em><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nude-Descending-a-Staircase-No-2" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2)</a> </em>(1912), he painted few other pictures. His irreverence for conventional <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="aesthetic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aesthetic" data-type="MW">aesthetic</a> standards led him to devise his famous <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/ready-made" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ready-mades</a> and heralded an artistic revolution. Duchamp was friendly with the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Dada" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Dadaists</a>, and in the 1930s he helped to organize <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Surrealism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Surrealist</a> exhibitions. He became a U.S. citizen in 1955.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1921"><h2 class="h1">Early years</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Although Duchamp’s father was a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/notary" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">notary</a> the family had an artistic tradition stemming from his grandfather, a shipping agent who practiced <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/engraving" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">engraving</a> seriously. Four of the six Duchamp children became artists. Gaston, born in 1875, was later known as <span id="ref66730"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jacques-Villon" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Jacques Villon</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raymond-Duchamp-Villon" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Raymond</a>, born in 1876, called himself Duchamp-Villon. Marcel, the youngest of the boys, and his sister Suzanne, born in 1889, both kept the name Duchamp as artists.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">When Marcel arrived in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Paris" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Paris</a> in October 1904, his two elder brothers were already in a position to help him. He had done some <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/painting" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">painting</a> at home, and his <em>Portrait of Marcel Lefrançois</em> shows him already in possession of a style and of a technique. During the next few years, while drawing <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/cartoon-pictorial-parody" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">cartoons</a> for comic magazines, Duchamp passed rapidly through the main contemporary trends in painting—<a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Post-Impressionism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Post-Impressionism</a>, the influence of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Cezanne" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Paul Cézanne</a>, <span id="ref66731"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Fauvism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Fauvism</a>, and finally <span id="ref66732"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Cubism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Cubism</a>. He was merely experimenting, seeing no virtue in making a habit of any one style. He was outside artistic tradition not only in shunning repetition but also in not attempting a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="prolific" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prolific" data-type="MW">prolific</a> output or frequent exhibition of his work. In the Fauvist style Marcel painted some of his best early work three or four years after the Fauvist movement itself had died away. The <em>Portrait of the Artist’s Father</em> is a notable example. Only in 1911 did he begin to paint in a manner that showed a trace of Cubism. He had then become a friend of the poet <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Guillaume-Apollinaire" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Guillaume Apollinaire</a>, a strong supporter of Cubism and of everything avant-garde in the arts. Another of his close friends was <span id="ref66733"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Picabia" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Francis Picabia</a>, himself a painter in the most orthodox style of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Impressionism-art" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Impressionism</a> until 1909, when he felt the need of complete change. Duchamp shared with him the feeling that Cubism was too systematic, too static and “boring.” They both passed directly from “semirealism” to a “nonobjective” expression of movement. There they met “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Futurism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Futurism</a>” and “Abstractionism,” which they had known before only by name.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">To an exhibition in 1911 Duchamp sent <em>Portrait (Dulcinea)</em>, which was composed of a series of five almost monochromatic, superimposed silhouettes. In this <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="juxtaposition" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/juxtaposition" data-type="MW">juxtaposition</a> of successive phases of the movement of a single body appears the idea for the <em><span id="ref66734"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nude-Descending-a-Staircase-No-2" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2)</a></em>. The main difference between the two works is that in the earlier one the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/kangaroo" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">kangaroo</a>-like silhouettes can be distinguished. In the <em>Nude</em>, on the other hand, there is no nude at all but only a descending machine, a nonobjective and virtually cinematic effect that was entirely new in painting.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">When the <em>Nude</em> was brought to the 28th <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Salon-des-Independants" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Salon des Indépendants</a> in February 1912, the committee, composed of friends of the Duchamp family, refused to hang the painting. These men were not reactionaries and were well accustomed to Cubism, yet they were unable to accept the novel vision. A year later at the <span id="ref66735"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Armory-Show-art-show-New-York-City" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Armory Show</a> in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/New-York-City" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">New York City</a>, the painting again was singled out from among hundreds that were equally shocking to the public. Whatever it was that made the work so scandalous in Paris, and in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/New-York-state" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">New York</a> so tremendous a success, prompted Duchamp to stop painting at the age of 25. A widely held belief is that Duchamp introduced in his work a dimension of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="irony" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irony" data-type="MW">irony</a>, almost a mockery of painting itself, that was more than anyone could bear and that undermined his own belief in painting. The title alone was a joke that was resented. Even the Cubists did their best to flatter the eye, but Duchamp’s only motive seemed to be provocation.</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module" href="/quiz/who-painted-the-most-expensive-paintings-in-the-world" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/32/91732-131-E8BF5F79/The-Birth-of-Venus-canvas-Sandro-Botticelli.jpg" alt=""The Birth of Venus," tempera on canvas by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485; in the Uffizi, Florence." class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-green">Britannica Quiz</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">Who Painted the Most Expensive Paintings in the World?</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h3"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1922"><h2 class="h1">Farewell to art</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In 1912, after the <em>Nude</em>, Duchamp did a few more paintings. Some of these, notably <em><span id="ref66736"></span>Le Passage de la Vierge à la Mariée</em> and <em><span id="ref66737"></span>Mariée</em>, both done in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Munich-Bavaria-Germany" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Munich</a>, are among the finest works of the period. Again they were neither <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Cubism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Cubist</a>, nor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Futurism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Futurist</a>, nor Abstract, but they expressed Duchamp’s typical vision of the body perceived in its inmost impulses.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">There was no question that as a painter Duchamp was on a footing with the most gifted. What he lacked was faith in art itself, and he sought to replace aesthetic values in his new world with an aggressive intellectualism opposed to the so-called common-sense world. As early as 1913 he began studies for an utterly awkward piece: <em><span id="ref66738"></span>The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)</em>. For it, he <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="repudiated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/repudiated" data-type="MW">repudiated</a> entirely what he called retinal art and adopted the geometrical methods of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/industrial-design" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">industrial design</a>. It became like the blueprint of a machine, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="albeit" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/albeit" data-type="MW">albeit</a> a symbolic one, that embodied his ideas of man, woman, and love.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Like the <em>Nude</em>, <em>The Large Glass</em> was to be unique among works of modern painting. Between 1913 and 1923, Duchamp worked almost exclusively on the preliminary studies and the actual painting of the picture itself. His farewell to painting was by no means a farewell to work.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">During this period a stroke of genius led him to a discovery of great importance in contemporary art, the so-called <span id="ref66739"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/ready-made" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ready-made</a>. In 1913 he produced the <em><span id="ref1230927"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bicycle-Wheel" class="md-crosslink ">Bicycle Wheel</a></em>, which was simply an ordinary <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/bicycle" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">bicycle</a> wheel. In 1914 <em><span id="ref1230928"></span>Pharmacy</em> consisted of a commercial print of a winter landscape, to which he added two small figures reminiscent of pharmacists’ bottles. It was nearly 40 years before the ready-mades were seen as more than a derisive gesture against the excessive importance attached to works of art, before their positive values were understood. With the ready-mades, contemporary art became in itself a mixture of creation and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="criticism" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criticism" data-type="MW">criticism</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD10 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">When <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">World War I</a> broke out, Duchamp, who was exempt from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/armed-force" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">military service</a>, was living and working in almost complete isolation. He left <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/France" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">France</a> for the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-States" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">United States</a>, where he had made friends through the Armory Show. When he landed in New York in June 1915, he was welcomed by reporters as a famous man. His warm reception in <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intellectual" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intellectual" data-type="MW">intellectual</a> circles as well raised his spirits. The wealthy poet and collector <span id="ref66740"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walter-Arensberg" class="md-crosslink ">Walter Arensberg</a> arranged a studio for him in his own home, where the painter immediately set to work on <em>The Large Glass</em>. He became the centre of the Arensberg group, enjoying a reputation that led to many offers from art galleries eager to handle the works of the painter of the <em>Nude</em>. He refused them all, however, not wanting to start a full-time career as a painter. To support himself, he gave <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/French-language" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">French</a> lessons. He was then, and remained, an artist whose works would have been sought after but who was content to distribute them free among his friends or to sell them for intentionally small amounts. He helped Arensberg buy back as many of his works as could be found, including the <em>Nude</em>. They became a feature of the Arensberg Collection, which was left to the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philadelphia-Museum-of-Art" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Philadelphia Museum of Art</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD10 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD11 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="212106" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media " data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/24/181724-050-67D779F6/Fountain-replica-original-Marcel-Duchamp-1917.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/172862/212106"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/24/181724-050-67D779F6/Fountain-replica-original-Marcel-Duchamp-1917.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/24/181724-050-67D779F6/Fountain-replica-original-Marcel-Duchamp-1917.jpg?w=300" alt="Marcel Duchamp: Fountain" data-width="1600" data-height="1132" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/24/181724-050-67D779F6/Fountain-replica-original-Marcel-Duchamp-1917.jpg" data-href="/media/1/172862/212106">Marcel Duchamp: <em>Fountain</em></a><span><em>Fountain</em>, ready-made by Marcel Duchamp, replica of the 1917 original (now lost).</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">Besides <em>The Large Glass</em>, on which he worked for eight more years until abandoning it in 1923, Duchamp did only a few more ready-mades. One, a urinal titled <em><span id="ref66741"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fountain-by-Duchamp" class="md-crosslink ">Fountain</a></em>, he sent to the first exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, in 1917. Although he was a founder-member of this society, he had signed the work “R. Mutt,” and therefore it was refused. His ready-mades had anticipated by a few years the <span id="ref66742"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Dada" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Dada</a> movement, which Picabia introduced to New York City in the magazine <em><span id="ref66743"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/291-Dadaist-periodical" class="md-crosslink ">291</a></em> (1917). As an echo of the movement, Duchamp helped Arensberg and <span id="ref66744"></span>H.P. Roché to publish <em>The Blind Man,</em> which had only two issues, and <em>Rongwrong</em>, which had only one. Later, with the artist <span id="ref66745"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Man-Ray" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Man Ray</a>, he published a single issue of <em>New York Dada</em> in 1921.</p><span class="marker MOD11 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD12 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In 1918 he sold <em>The Large Glass</em>, which was still unfinished, to Walter Arensberg. With the money from this and another painting, his last, he spent nine months in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Buenos-Aires" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Buenos Aires</a>, where he heard of the armistice and of the deaths of his brother <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Raymond-Duchamp-Villon" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Raymond</a> Duchamp-Villon and of Apollinaire. In Paris in 1919 he stayed with Picabia and established contact with the first Dada group. This was the occasion of his most famous ready-made, a photograph of the <em>Mona Lisa</em> with a moustache and a goatee added. The act expressed the Dadaists’ <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="scorn" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/scorn" data-type="EB">scorn</a> for the art of the past, which in their eyes was part of the infamy of a civilization that had produced the horrors of the war just ended.</p><span class="marker MOD12 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD13 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In February 1923 Duchamp stopped working on <em>The Large Glass</em>, considering it definitely and permanently unfinished. As the years passed, art activity of any kind interested him less and less, but the cinema came to fulfill his pleasure in movement. His works to this point had been only potential machines, and it was time for him to create machines that were real, that worked and moved. The first ones were devoted to optics and led to a short film, <em><span id="ref66746"></span>Anemic Cinema</em> (1926). With these and other products, including “optical phonograph records,” he acted as a kind of amateur engineer. The modesty of his results, however, was a way by which he could ridicule the ambitions of industry. The rest of the time he was absorbed in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/chess" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chess</a> playing, even taking part in international tournaments and publishing a <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="treatise" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/treatise" data-type="MW">treatise</a> on the subject in 1932.</p><span class="marker MOD13 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD14 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Although Duchamp carefully avoided art circles, he remained in contact with the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Surrealism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Surrealist</a> group in Paris, composed of many of his former Dadaist friends. When in 1934 he published the <em>Green Box</em>, containing a series of documents related to <em>The Large Glass</em>, the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Surrealist" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Surrealist" data-type="MW">Surrealist</a> poet <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andre-Breton" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">André Breton</a> perceived the importance of the painting and wrote the first <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="comprehensive" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comprehensive" data-type="MW">comprehensive</a> study of Duchamp, which appeared in the Paris magazine <em>Minotaure</em> in 1935. From that time on there was a closer association between the Surrealists and Duchamp, who helped Breton to organize all the Surrealist exhibitions from 1938 to 1959. Just before <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">World War II</a> he assembled his <em><span id="ref66747"></span>Boîte-en-valise,</em> a suitcase containing 68 small-scale reproductions of his works. When the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nazi-Party" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Nazis</a> occupied France, he smuggled his material across the border in the course of several trips. Eventually he carried it to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/New-York-City" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">New York City</a>, where he joined a number of the Surrealists in <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="exile" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/exile" data-type="EB">exile</a>, including Breton, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Max-Ernst" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Max Ernst</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Yves-Tanguy" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Yves Tanguy</a>. He was instrumental in organizing the Surrealist exhibition in New York City in October and November of 1942.</p><span class="marker MOD14 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD15 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Unlike his co-exiles, he felt at home in America, where he had many friends. During the war, the exhibition of <em>The Large Glass</em> at the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Museum-of-Modern-Art-museum-New-York-City" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Museum of Modern Art</a>, New York City, helped to revive his reputation, and a special issue of the art magazine <em>View</em> was devoted to him in 1945. Two years later he was back in Paris assisting Breton with a Surrealist exhibition, but he returned to New York City promptly and spent most of the remainder of his life there. After his marriage to Teeny Sattler in 1954, he lived more than ever in semiretirement, content with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/chess" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chess</a> and with producing, as the spirit moved him, some strange and unexpected object.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD15 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD16 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">This contemplative life was interrupted in about 1960, when the rising generation of American artists realized that Duchamp had found answers for many of their problems. Suddenly tributes came to him from all over the world. Retrospective shows of his works were organized in America and Europe. Even more astonishing were the replicas of his ready-mades produced in limited editions with his permission, but the greatest surprise was still to come. After his death in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Neuilly-sur-Seine" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Neuilly</a> his friends heard that he had worked secretly for his last 20 years on a major piece called <em><span id="ref66748"></span>Étant donnés: 1. la chute d’eau, 2. le gaz d’éclairage</em> (<em>Given: 1. The Waterfall, 2. The Illuminating Gas</em>). It is now at the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philadelphia-Museum-of-Art" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Philadelphia Museum of Art</a> and offers through two small holes in a heavy wooden door a glimpse of Duchamp’s <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="enigma" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/enigma" data-type="MW">enigma</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD16 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":2,"pageId":172862,"pageLength":2077,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.14"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.14' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"A","adLeg":"A","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"BIO_PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Marcel Duchamp | Biography & Artwork | Britannica