Very few artists can say have changed the course of art history in a way that Marcel Duchamp did. By challenging the thought of what is art, his first "readymades" sent shock waves across the art world that can still be felt today. Duchamp's growing amusement with the desire of sexual identity as well as his affection for wordplay aligns his work with that of Surrealists, although he firmly refused to be affiliated with any specific artistic movement. In his desire that art should be driven by ideas above everything, he is often considered to be the father of Conceptual art. Duchamp denied purely visual art claiming it to be only there to please the eye rather than have a motive behind it. He remained devoted to the study of perspective and …show more content…
Although his father was into politics, most of his family had an artistic tradition from his grandfather. One of Marcel's first works of art was “Landscape at Blainville” (1902), which reflected his family's love for Claude Monet. He also painted this piece at fifteen years old. Marcel was close to his two older brothers, and in 1904, after both had left the house to become artists, he joined them in Paris to study painting at the Académie Julian. His brother, Jacques Villon, supported him during his studies, and Marcel earned some money as a caricaturist. In the coming years, Duchamp swiftly explored the most important modern trends of painting (Post-Impressionism, the influence of Paul Cézanne, Fauvism and finally …show more content…
Interestingly, Duchamp received in this time an association with Dadaism - ready many years after the end of the group that is associated with a group, without having to confirm the policy and the problems that normally determine the dynamics of the group. Duchamp practically enrolled in the movement and, therefore, in the history of art.
Duchamp's insistence that art should be an expression of the mind and not of the eye or the hand, spoke as much to the minimalists as to the conceptual artists. It marked the beginning of a new era, summed up by Joseph Kosuth's statement that "all art (according to Duchamp) is conceptual (in nature) because art exists only conceptually". The pioneering concept of the mass production of ready-made was embraced not only by Andy Warhol and other Pop Art artists who affirmed Duchamp as their founding father, but also by the artists of Fluxus, Arte Povera and performance due to their performative