About the Author:
One of the most controversial and influential artists of the 20th century, Marcel Duchamp, a.k.a. Rrose Sélavy and R. Mutt, was born in 1887 in Blainville, France. The brother of artists Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Jacques Villon, Duchamp himself began to paint in 1908. After producing several canvases in the current mode of Fauvism, he turned toward experimentation and the avant garde, producing one of his most famous works, the cubist "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" (1912), which caused a furor in New York at the 1913 Armory Show. He painted very little after 1915, with the notable exception of his most challenging work, "Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even" (1915-1923). Perhaps his most important legacy was the ready-made, a radical rethinking of the artwork initiated by Duchamp with his "Fountain" (1917), which consisted of a mass-produced ceramic urinal, turned upside down, signed "R. Mutt," and exhibited in a gallery setting. After his brief creative period, Duchamp virtually retired from the art world and spent the remainder of his life playing chess. He died in Paris in 1968.
Language Notes:
Text: English, Italian (translation)
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