Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)

  
French born artist and art theorist, Marcel Duchamp, was born into a generation of Duchamp artists: painter Jacques Villon, sculptor Duchamp-Villon, and painter Suzanne Duchamp. Although Duchamp produced more theory than actual works, he is regarded as one of the most important twentieth century artists due to the originality of his ideas. Nude Descending a Staircase, displayed in the Armory Show in 1913, combined the styles of Futurism and Cubism and greatly raised Duchamp’s notoriety. In the same year he created the “ready-made,” mounting a bicycle wheel onto a kitchen stool. At this time Duchamp gave up on traditional media. In 1915 he moved to New York and became one of the leaders of the Dada movement and continued his ready-made series. Some of the most notable were the Bottle Rack, 1914 and the Fountain, 1917. Also notable was Duchamp’s reproduction of the Mona Lisa with facial hair and an obscene inscription.