Marcel Duchamp

In 1927, he married Lydie Sarazin-Lavassor and divorced her after six months. Following his ex-wife’s death, his relationship of 20 years with Mary Reynolds went public and the duo remained together, until her death in 1950.

In 1957, he married Alexina Sattler, who stayed with him until his death.

After dining with his friends, Man Ray and Robert Lebel on October 2, 1968, he passed away all of a sudden, just as he was retiring for the night. He was interred at the Rouen Cemetery, in Rouen, France.

Marcel Duchamp was born on July 28, 1887 to Eugene and Lucie Duchamp in Blainville-Crevon Seine-Maritime in France. Three of his other siblings also became successful painters and sculptors in their own right.

At the age of 8, he enrolled to the Lycee Pierre-Corneille, where for the next eight years; he went through a rigorous process of intellectual/academic development. Although he was not a brilliant student, his strengths lay in the subjects like mathematics and drawing.

After a winning a prize for drawing, he was influenced to pursue art as a career. He followed in the footsteps of his brother, Jacques Villon, whose artistic styles he wanted to emulate.

By the age of 14, he transformed his drawings into masterpiece works, with the usage of watercolors for landscapes etc.

His early works depict Post-Impressionist styles as well as classical techniques. From 1904 to 1905, he studied art at the Academie Julian, but was more absorbed in playing billiards than attending classes.

In 1905, he was compulsorily made to enroll for military service and at the time, he worked for a printer in Rouen. It was here, he learned typography and printing processes, which he would use for his later works.

In 1908, his works were displayed at the ‘Salon d’Automne’ and the next year at the ‘Salon des Independants’.

In 1911, Duchamp and Jacques accommodated a discussion group which came to be known as the ‘Puteaux Group’. This included the members Fernand Leger, Picabia, Juan Gris and Albert Gleizes.

He painted ‘Coffee Mill’, a machine painting in 1911, which he presented to his brother Raymond Duchamp-Villon. The same year he also painted, ‘Portrait of Chess Players’, which was pregnant with Cubist frames in manifold perceptions.

1912 proved to be an extremely productive year for Duchamp as it stirred both awe and controversy. His best-known painting, ‘Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2’ induced significant controversy.

In 1912, he created one of his most controversial masterpieces; ‘Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2’. It is a Modernist classic painting and is regarded as one of the most important examples of Modernist art of its time. It became such a famous piece of work that there are songs, albums and plays based on the painting including, ‘Naked Girl Falling Down the Stairs’ by the Cramps, ‘Dude Descending a Staircase’ by Apollo 440 and the play, ‘Interrogating the Nude’, respectively.

‘The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even’, also known as ‘The Large Glass’ was made from 1915 to 1923. This work was made using lead foil, dust and fuse wire on two sheets of glass. This is considered one of his major works for the duration it took to finish and is one of the first few pieces of his ‘readymade’ works. Today, it is displayed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a duplicate is kept in a museum in Japan.