Marcel Duchamp

1887 - 1968

French (Blainville-Crevon, France - Neuilly-sur-Seine, France)

Marcel Duchamp worked in a quite conventional manner based on Cezanne and other Impressionist throughout 1910. He cited the work of Symbolist painter Odilon Redon (also shown this gallery) as significantly influential. After 1910 he began to work in a cubist style that culminated in 1913 when he unveiled Nude Descending a Staircase, at the Armory Show in New York, a work influenced by early photographic studies of movement that depicted multiple simultaneous views of a woman walking down a set of stairs. The painting outraged critics but secured the artist’s notoriety. In 1915 he began visiting the U.S. and would travel back and fourth between Europe and America throughout his life. In 1955 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.