History of Art: Marcel Duchamp

Art of the 20th Century

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Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp

(b Blainville, Normandy, 28 July 1887; d Neuilly-sur-Seine, 2 Oct 1968).

French painter, sculptor and writer. The art and ideas of Duchamp, perhaps more than those of any other 20th-century artist, have served to exemplify the range of possibilities inherent in a more conceptual approach to the art-making process. Not only is his work of historical importance—from his early experiments with Cubism to his association with Dada and Surrealism—but his conception of the ready-made decisively altered our understanding of what constitutes an object of art. Duchamp refused to accept the standards and practices of an established art system, conventions that were considered essential to attain fame and financial success: he refused to repeat himself, to develop a recognizable style or to show his work regularly. It is the more theoretical aspects implicit to both his art and life that have had the most profound impact on artists later in the century, allowing us to identify Duchamp as one of the most influential artists of the modern era.

Three Duchamp brothers, left to right:
Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Villon, and Raymond Duchamp-Villon
in the garden of Jacques Villon's studio in Pateaux, France, in 1914