In 1906 he moved to Paris to draw cartoons for satirical periodicals and began executing his first canvases, which were of a Fauvist influence, with pulsating colors that one found in a Matisse. By 1911, however, Duchamp's work became influenced by Cubism, the subject matter turning from portraits to the more abstract forms of chess pieces. In 1912, he completed "Nude Descending a Staircase," one of his most famous works, a painting that attempted to catch all the abstract forms of the human body in motion. The work was rejected by the Salon Des Independents (where Duchamp had already exhibited work), but shown at the famous Armory show in New York In 1913, along with his "Sad Young Man on a Train," "The King and Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes" and "Portrait of Chess Players." Art critics were somewhat shocked by Duchamp's style, calling " Nude" an "Explosion in a Shingle Factory," but the result of the Armory Show was that Duchamp became famous in the United States.
During this time, Duchamp began his series of "Readymades," works that were simply found objects, the idea being that there was art in simply the choice of the objects. His first "Readymade" was a bicycle wheel in 1913 followed by a bottle rack in 1914, a snow shovel titled "In Advance of a Broken Arm" (1915) , and perhaps his most famous, "Fountain" (1917), a urinal signed by Duchamp as R. Mutt and submitted to the Salon des Independents who rejected it. In 1915, Duchamp met fellow expatriates Francis Picabia and Albert Gleizes in the U.S., and also was introduced to photographer /artist Man Ray as well as art patrons Walter and Louise Arsenbeg. In 1918, he painted his last traditional work on canvas, "Tu'm," and continued working on moire ambitious projects such as his "Large Glass," his most famous work, which had its genesis in studies made in 1913, and occupied him from 1915 to 1922, the same year he coined the phrase "Dada" for Tristan Tzara's art movement.
The "Large Glass," also known as "The Bride Stripped Bare By The Bachelors, Even," is a work painted on glass panes with oils, varnish , lead wire and dust that represents a kind of bio-mechanical mechanism which Duchamp detailed in copious notes that give the viewer little or no insight to the arcane functions of this singular work which incorporated other images by Duchamp including his "Chocolate Grinder" of 1914 and "Nine Malic Moulds" (1914-15). Duchamp maintained that work should remain as unfinished.
Go To Page: 1 2
