Marcel Duchamp

Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp was a French and American artist, an art theorist, one of the founders of such art movements as Dadaism and Surrealism.

Was born into a wealthy family. His mother, brothers and sister were engaged in painting, and Marcel grew up in a creative atmosphere, which contributed to the early manifestation of his talent. Following the older brothers, he began to paint in the style of impressionism, presenting quite interesting works from the age of 14.

Marcel Duchamp, despite a small number of his works, was one of the most influential figures of fine art after the First World War, a genius and a rebel, who pushed the scope of painting beyond what was permitted. The artist was the author of the “ready-made” method, being the first to use the idea of ​​creating art objects from the most common objects, such as a bicycle wheel and even a urinal. The unusual and sometimes shocking creativity of Duchamp has opened wide opportunities for the further development of avant-garde art all over the world.

At the end of his career, the artist departed from painting, preferring to use already finished objects for his works, which he called “ready-made”, or creating voluminous collages. In addition to his artistic creativity, Marcel Duchamp starred in films, wrote articles and studied chess, in which he was a professional. Thanks to his versatile and unordinary talent, he left a bright mark in the art of the early twentieth century and laid the foundation for the emergence of completely new methods and trends in painting.

Key ideas:

– The works of Marcel Duchamp stand out for their eccentricity, even among the great variety of artistic styles and movements of post-war Europe. When the artist was young, after passing through the fascination with Impressionism and Fauvism, the artist decided that his paintings must not copy already known masterpieces, and started searching for absolutely new ways in the art.

– Thanks to his analytical mindset, Duchamp could brilliantly transfer movement with the help of geometric shapes, creating expressive dynamic images, typical of Cubism. His best work in this style, which caused a great resonance in society, was the picture “Nude descending the stairs” (1912). In that painting, the image of a woman that seems to be made of random pieces of figures impresses you with a special strict harmony and balance.

– According to Duchamp, in art, you do not have to rely on a purely visual effect, which he named “the pleasure of the retina”, considering it primitive and too accessible, but to approach the creation and contemplation of works of art from an intellectual and conceptual point of view.

– The artist saw the goal of art in expressing an idea, which an author desires to convey to a viewer, applying any methods for implementing this. On this basis, he began to use everyday items, such as bottle dryer, a bicycle wheel or a stool for creating art objects, claiming that only the attitude of a viewer makes this or that object significant and valuable. Proof of this was his work “ Fountain”, which is an ordinary urinal, signed by a fictitious name. This object made a real revolution, inverting all the usual concepts and canons in art.

– The artist’s work has never been popular with the general public. His paintings were shocking and incomprehensible to most; the artist preferred to shock viewers, causing their astonishment and indignation, but, at the same time, close attention to his extraordinary ideas.

– He was also an adherent of a scientific approach to art, learning the laws of perspective and optics and conducting experiments with kinetic devices. This hobby was reflected in the author’s works of art, which showed elements mechanisms and the movement of machines in the last phase of his work.