

In a causal but poignant way, Marcel Duchamp reveals himself as a man and an artist, showing his playful principles of living that has contributed to his art being unpredictable, complex and surprising. In 1964, the writer Calvin Tomkins spent a number of afternoons interviewing infamous artists Marcel Duchamp in his apartment in New York. Aside from his eclectic and diverse body of work, he is much admired for his theoretical contributions to art.įor the most expensive Marcel Duchamp art sold in auction, scroll down!Įditors’ Tip: Marcel Duchamp: The Afternoon Interviews by Calvin Tomkins Still, his ideas about art and his radical critique of art institutions have made him a cult figure and a great influence for various artists involved in different movements from Conceptual Art and Minimalism to Fluxus, Pop-Art and Performance Art. Throughout his career, he has refused to follow a typical artistic path, and ultimately, he has withdrawn from the art world completely. This performative act has had radical implication on the idea of art. This status of artworks was gained by the mere choice of the artist. The term coined by Duchamp himself designated everyday objects that were taken from their usual concept and presented as a work of art. Questioning the very notion of art and what constitutes it, Duchamp introduced the concept of a ‘readymade’. This idea that art should be driven by ideas has proposed him as the father of Conceptual Art. He argued that art should not only please the mind, in favor of more intellectual, concept-driven approaches to art-making and viewing. He has renounced painting altogether in 1913 and rejected the work of many of his fellow artists as ‘retinal’ art. He experimented with classical techniques and subjects, and his early works aligned with Post-Impressionism and later Cubism and Futurism. This linguistic component of his work is one of the contributions that paved the way for Conceptual Art. He often included visual or verbal puns rife with sexual connotations that remained to characterize his work for the rest of his life.


While studying art at the& Académie Julian, Marcel Duchamp often drew cartoons reflecting his tongue-in-cheek wit and subversive sense of humor. Although certain aspects of his work are closely associated with Surrealism, he refused to be categorized within any artistic movement per se. His work changed the course of art history greatly, and his concepts continue to shake the art world with the shock waves being felt still.

A French-American painter, sculptor, chess player and writer whose work has been associated with Dadaism and many other avant-garde movements, Marcel Duchamp is commonly considered as one of the artists who helped define the revolutionary developments in plastic arts in the opening decades of the twentieth century and as being responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture.
