Duchamp, Marcel

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Duchamp, Marcel (1887–1968) French painter. A radical art theorist, his Nude Descending a Staircase outraged visitors to the Armory Show. He produced few paintings, concentrating on abolishing the concept of aesthetic beauty. He was a leading member of New York Dada, inventing the concept of the ‘ready-made’. His Fountain consisted of nothing but a urinal. His main work, The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (1915–23), is a ‘definitively unfinished’ painting of metal collage elements on glass.

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