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Marcel Duchamp

French painter, sculptor, and chess player (1887-1968) · France · Artists · Died at 81

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He put a urinal in a gallery and called it art - and the art world has been arguing about what counts ever since. Duchamp didn't just make provocations; he rewired the entire premise of what an artist does.

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A life in dates

1968Died2 October 19681945“The Dada movement was an anti-movement which corresponded to a need born of the first World War.”In their wordsQuote in 'Appreciations of other artists': Max Ernst (painter, sculptor author) 1945, by Marcel Duchamp; as cited in Catalog, Collection of

1919“I have been wanting to write to you for some time, but never have time, so absorbed I am in playing chess.”In their wordsa daily life quote, in Duchamp's letter to the Stettheimers family in New York, from Buenos Aires 3 Mai 1919; as quoted in The Duchamp

1918“To be looked at [from the other side of his art-work 'The Glass'] with one eye, close to, for almost an hour.”In their wordsan inscription in French title, (translated) - instruction of his artwork, 1918; as quoted from 'Looking at Dada' ed. Sarah Blyth / Edward

1915“People talk of Pablo Picasso as the leader of the Cubists but, strictly speaking, he is no longer a Cubist. Today he is a Cubist, tomorrow he will be something else.”In their words1 September 1915quote from the text 'A complete reversal of opinions on art'; Marcel Duchamp, in 'Art and Decoration', New York, 1 September 1915

“I have impressed upon you my preoccupation with earning money so as to have a secure existence over there. That's the way it have to be..”In their words27 April 1915Quote in Duchamp's letter to Walter Pach, Paris 27 April 1915; as quoted in The Duchamp Book, ed. Gavin Parkinson, Tate Publishing, London

1913“If a straight horizontal thread one meter long falls from a height of one meter on to a horizontal plane twisting as it pleases [it] creates a new image of the unit of length.”In their wordsDuchamp's stated premise for his art-work: '3 Standard stoppages' he made during 1913 -1914; ; as quoted in Looking at Dada, eds. Sarah

1887Born28 July 1887

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Marcel Duchamp 01Marcel Duchamp 01Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon in the garden of Villon's studio, Puteaux, France, c.1913Marcel Duchamp, Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon in the garden of Villon's studio, Puteaux, France, c.1913Five-Way Portrait of Marcel Duchamp, 21 June 1917, New York CityFive-Way Portrait of Marcel Duchamp, 21 June 1917, New York CityMarcel Duchamp by Joseph StellaMarcel Duchamp by Joseph StellaA class at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille, Rouen 1902, Robert Antoine Pinchon and Marcel DuchampA class at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille, Rouen 1902, Robert Antoine Pinchon and Marcel DuchampAlbert Gleizes, Jean Crotti, Marcel Duchamp, The Sun, New York, 2 January 1916Albert Gleizes, Jean Crotti, Marcel Duchamp, The Sun, New York, 2 January 1916Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Crotti, Hugo Robus, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Frances Simpson Stevens, Every Week, No. 14, April 2, 1917Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Crotti, Hugo Robus, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Frances Simpson Stevens, Every Week, No. 14, April 2, 1917Alexina Duchamp - GianAngelo Pistoia 2Alexina Duchamp - GianAngelo Pistoia 2

In their own words 10

,
Marcel Duchamp
,
10 statements, newest first

  1. The Dada movement was an anti-movement which corresponded to a need born of the first World War.

    1945, Quote in 'Appreciations of other artists': Max Ernst (painter, sculptor author) 1945, by Marcel Duchamp; as cited in Catalog, Collection of, Own words

  2. Painting is over and done with. Who could do anything better than this propeller? Look, could you do that?

    1919, Quote of Duchamp's remark to Brancusi, visiting the Paris Aviation Show of 1919; as quoted in Looking at Dada, eds. Sarah Ganz Blythe &, Own words

  3. I have been wanting to write to you for some time, but never have time, so absorbed I am in playing chess.

    1919, a daily life quote, in Duchamp's letter to the Stettheimers family in New York, from Buenos Aires 3 Mai 1919; as quoted in The Duchamp, Own words

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About this person

Born in France in 1887, Marcel Duchamp spent his last quarter-century in New York, where he became the quiet agent of the avant-garde's American turn. He was the first to elevate a urinal to the status of art, a gesture that cracked open the definition of the medium itself. In a 1957 lecture in Houston, he described the artist as working in "pure intuition," unable to fully account for the work's meaning - a gap he called the art coefficient, "an arithmatic relationship between the unexpressed but intended and the unintentionally expressed." That idea seeded conceptual art and later appropriation practices, influencing figures from Warhol to Levine. He died in 1968, leaving behind a body of work widely considered, alongside Picasso and Braque, as one of the pivots into the post-industrial age.

Country
France
Category
Artists
Type
Artist
Status
deceased
Dates
Lived 1887 to 1968 · aged 81

In common with Marcel

Jean CocteauAlso in 8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements (1957)Curd JürgensAlso in Uncertain Verification (1965)Man RayAlso in Entr'acte (1924)Maya DerenAlso in Witch's Cradle (1944)Hans RichterAlso in 8 x 8: A Chess-Sonata in 8 Movements (1957)Jean-Marie DrotAlso in Marcel Duchamp: A Game of Chess (1963)

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