Yesterday was the birthday of French artist Marcel Duchamp (b.1887 – 1968). He is said to be the inventer of conceptual art. When he submitted ‘Fountain‘, a urinal to The Society of Independent Artist in 1917 signing it R. Mutt and displaying it as art, this had an immediate effect…. and art was never the same again.
nude descending from a staircase No. 2 duchamp
He was a Surrealist and also a Dadaist (I shall be writing about them soon). He like to challenge art establishments and the way that art was percieved. One of his earlier works ‘Nude descending a staircase No. 2’ shows the artist’s interest with the mechanism of movement. This is a hybrid of Cubism and Futurism. He created controversy when he exhibited this at the 1913 Armory show.
Duchamp large glass Bride stripped bare by her batchelors
Another of Duchamp’s works, ‘The Bride Stripped Bare by her Batchelors’ is a very complicated peiece of work (better explained HERE). His ‘readymades’ as he called them, consisted of found objects which he would cobble together and sign: an extreme form of minimalism. Andre Breton defined the ‘readymade’ as;
“an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.”
Duchamp didn’t produce many works, but is still a very interesting artist who made important contributions to art and especially the way in which art is percieved.
Here is a list of links to post I have made so far concerning artist’s birthday. I have tried to make it a rule that I actually LIKE the artists’ work! Some artists I do like, I have not included so far, as their birthdays have clashed with something else I was writing about. Some birthdays I have only found out about when it was too late to include them , I mean to rectify this at a later date.
Echostains Blog 