Duchamp was born in 1887 and died in 1968. His work is characterized by its humor, the variety and unconventionality of its media and its continuous probing of the boundaries of art. He challenged conventional thought about artistic processes and art marketing, not so much by writing, but through subversive actions such as dubbing a urinal “art” and naming it Fountain. He proclaimed that art can be about ideas instead of just worldly things, a revolutionary notion during his time. In sculpture, Duchamp pioneered two of the main innovations of the 20th century kinetic art and ready-made art. He produced relatively few artworks, while moving quickly through the avant-garde circles of his time. It is often suggested that some of the most fruitful influences in modern art, from Surrealism to Abstraction to Pop to pure Conceptualism, have a common forefather in Duchamp.

He was also a lifelong lover of chess, achieving tournament status and writing a weekly chess colum for Ce Soir. He also wrote a book about chess. In fact, he stopped making art for about a decade to pursue his passion for chess.

The oil painting above is titled “Nude Descending A Staircase No. 2″ and it’s from 1912.

Here is a fascinating visual exploration of his work.

Sources: beatmuseum.org, understandingduchamp.com, wikipedia