Nude Descending A Staircase: Marcel Duchamp

As critics of the art world we were made to believe that only beautiful constructions are works of art. However, this is not how art should be seen. As the institutional theory of art states, anything at all, and not only objects that are said to be beautiful, can be art. Art is anything and everything portraying a meaning that was not present to the naked eye. The same way Michelangelo is able to take marble, sculpt it into a statue and have it called art, Marcel Duchamp should be able to change the position of an urinal, give it a different meaning (and name), and have that piece be considered art. Marcel Duchamp is the artist behind Fountain and all of its controversies. Duchamp was not the one who constructed or actually built

Through which can be observed from the multiple pieces of Duchamp’s work that represent a new form of art established by Duchamp that requires a complex thought process in order to understand. This idea of conceptual art, or artwork that requires understanding rather than just observation, can be seen through a number of Duchamp’s pieces. Apart from it being present in Fountain conceptual art can also be seen in Nude Descending A Staircase where various shapes are combined to create a bigger picture that cannot be described through the title of the piece. Although there are various shapes the structure of a staircase is not easily seen at first glance and the nude figure also requires more analyzation of the work. Art cannot only be defined through the looks of a piece but also through the artist 's’ ideas. As Marcel Duchamp worked on art between the 1900s and 1960s, Duchamp was influenced by many different art movements. One of these movements being Dada where art started shifting away from aesthetics and looks to the art that redefined society, artistic roles and the purpose of art. Fountain was able to question the purpose of art through its indifferent style. Robert J. Coady believed that this new kind of art would create a revolution and give deeper and greater meaning to the art world as