Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)

French painter and mixed media artist, Marcel Duchamp is considered the father of Object Art, from which Conceptual Art emerged. Although he avoided allegiances to any specific movement, he flirted with Cubism, Dada and Surrealism. When he signed a snow shovel and proclaimed it a work of art, he broke all boundaries, stating that it is the artistic idea that counts, and not the artistic craft. One of the most famous artists of the avant-garde, Duchamp is best known for his humorous works which include Nude Descending Staircase, 1912 (Museum of Art, Philadelphia); Fountain, 1917 (Replica, Tate Collection, London) and In Advance of the Broken Arm, 1945 (Yale University Art Gallery).

Portrait Of Chess Players, Philadelphia
Museum of Art (1911).

MODERN SCULPTURE
For a list of modern artists
see: 20th Century Sculptors.

Duchamp was born in Blainville-Crevon, a town in the Normandy region of France. His family were cultured, they played chess, music, painted and read books together. One brother became a sculptor and two other siblings became painters. In 1904 he went to study art at the Academie Julian in Paris, but by his own admission, was more interested in billiards than fine art painting. However, he readily absorbed the works of Cezanne, Fauvism, Symbolism and Cubism. His early works include his first 'machine' painting, Coffee Mill, 1911 (Tate Gallery) and Portrait of Chess Players, 1911 (Philadelphia Museum of Art). His first major controversial work is considered Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912, which shows influence of Cubism and Futurists (who were passionate about speed, technology and violence).

In 1912 Duchamp painted the last of his Cubist-style paintings, The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors (Philadelphia Museum of Art). He painted very few more canvases after this time, growing disillusioned with what he called 'retinal' art - art that only appealed to the eye. He wanted to create a new art that would appeal to the mind.

Nude Descending Staircase (1912)
Philadelphia Museum of Art.

His next piece of work, 3-Standard Stoppages, 1913 (a question placed in a box), would take him out of the boundaries of conventional art and into new territory (and what is now called Concept Art). He wanted to break all the rules of artistic tradition, and asked himself, what better way to do this than to break the fundamental values: that of beauty and craft skill. Bicycle Wheel & Other Readymades, 1915 was his answer to this - he took everyday items, signed them, and declared them a piece of art. In 1917 he submitted a urinal to a show promoting avant-garde art. He signed it under the pseudonym R.Mutt, and called it The Fountain. The show organisers were not impressed, and The Fountain was 'misplaced' during the exhibition. It disappeared again soon after, although there are replicas of it today (one in the Tate Gallery, London). In 1919 Duchamp took a postcard of Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa and drew a moustache on her and added the caption L.H.O.O.Q (which was a French homophone for 'She's Hot In the Ass'. It quickly became a humorous icon of the Dada Art Movement.

WORLD'S GREATEST ART
For a list of the finest works of
painting and sculpture, by the
world's most famous artists, see:
Greatest Paintings Ever
Oils, watercolours, mixed media
by top painters: 1300-present.
Greatest Sculptures Ever
3-D works in stone, bronze, wood.
Antiquity, Gothic, Renaissance,
Baroque, Neoclassical, Modern,
and Contemporary.

WORLD'S BEST SCULPTORS
For the top 100 world's best
stone/wood carvers and bronze
artists, see: Greatest Sculptors.

WORLDS TOP ARTISTS
Best Artists of All Time.

TOP ART PRICES
For a list of the highest prices paid
for works of art by famous painters:
Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings.

MEANING OF ART
For more about the different types,
styles and values of traditional and
contemporary visual art, see:
Definition of Art.

In 1920 Duchamp moved to America, and shortly thereafter gave up painting. Instead he wanted to focus on playing and studying chess, which he fairly much did for the rest of his life. His wife, after gluing his chess pieces to the board, divorced him shortly after. Within a few years, he felt he had reached the heights of his ability as a chess player, and switched to correspondence chess and became a chess journalist. As he grew older, he often made little copies of his oil paintings, drawings, collages and ready-mades that would fit into a case. He wanted to create a sort of portable museum. The Box in a Suitcase was so popular by collectors that he had to make lots of versions over 20 years. This showed that copies could also count as art, just like everyday objects.

Duchamp died in 1968. Several retrospective exhibitions of his work took place, including at the Tate Gallery, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Philadelphia Art Museum. In 2004, his Fountain was voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century by 500 artists and critics in Britain. Although he is considered one of the masters of modern art, his work is often considered really boring to look at. It is after all, difficult to get enthusiastic about a shovel or urinal. To speak ill of Duchamp is to invite the wrath of the art establishment, for whom conceptual art is regarded as the cutting edge of 21st century creativity - witness Tracey Emin's 2008 role in curating a room for the London Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, or the prices paid for 'works of art' by Damien Hirst - but while Duchamp's work was significant in his day, now it looks rather tired and old-fashioned. Even so, he remains one of the great iconoclasts in the history of art in the 20th century. His works can be seen in major contemporary and modern galleries and some of the best art museums in the world.

For more about the impact of Marcel Duchamp on 20th century art, please see: Pop-Art Movement.

• For information about contemporary artists in Ireland, see: Irish Art Encyclopedia.