MARCEL DUCHAMP

(1887-1968)

Born in Blainville-Crevon, France.

Studied painting at the Académie Julian in Paris and was also trained as a librarian.

His early works were Post-Impressionist but in a few years he began creating directly related to Cubism and the dinamic elements of Futurism.

Travelled to New York and took part in the great Armory Show.

With Picabia and Man Ray he started the movement which in some respects antecipated the Dadaism. And his radical ideas predated the founding of the Dada movement in Zurich in 1916.

And spent almost a year in Buenos Aires playing chess!

Returned to Paris for a few years, in 1942 settled permanently in New York and became a United States citizen in 1955.

Duchamp was the inventor of "ready-mades", mechanical objects which, deflected from their normal use, take on a new existence from their strange and incongruous setting. And from this originated a new dream-world full of shocks and contradictions.

"chess game",   1910

"young girl and man in spring",    1911

"portrait of chess players"

"portrait Dulcinea"

"paradise Adam and Eve"

"to have the apprentice in the sun", 1914

"nude seated in a bathtub"

"nude descending a staircase"