Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp (pseudonym Rose Sélavy) (Blainville, 1887 - Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1968) was a French-born American painter, sculptor and Chess player. His work is often associated with Post-Impressionist styles, Cubism, Fauvism and avant-garde movements like the Dadaist and Surrealist.
A chessplayer, a trickster, and an artist, Marcel Duchamp created works of art that slyly debased traditional painting and sculpture.
His most famous work is Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, 1912.
After 1923 Duchamp actually left art and devoted himself to playing chess, art critic and literary activities. Together with Katherina Dreier he founded the "Société anonyme" for the propagation of modern art in America; preference was given to anti-traditional, cubist, futurist and dadaist works. From 1942 to 1944, together with Max Ernst and André Breton, he edited the surrealist periodical "VVV", in New York. [1]
