Life and career
Origins and training
Born into an artistic family in Normandy, Duchamp began as a painter. His brothers Jacques Villon and Raymond Duchamp-Villon were artists too.
Places, turning points and artistic change
Experiments with Fauvism and Cubism led to mechanical bodies, glass constructions and readymade objects. Moving between France and New York widened his circle, while he resisted being confined to one movement.
Beyond the studio
He also worked with film, exhibitions and chess. His lasting question was whether choosing and presenting something could matter as much as making it by hand.
Works across a career
Selected examples, not a complete catalogue. Read date ranges and attributions before inferring a career sequence.
Reading the selected works together
The glass construction, bicycle-wheel version and film ask different kinds of looking. Dates distinguish original ideas from later remakings.
- 01
1915–23
1915–23
The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)
- Material / technique
- Mixed media on glass
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- MoMA — Marcel Duchamp
A constructed encounter, not a conventional oil painting on canvas.
- 02
1926
1926
Anémic cinéma
- Material / technique
- Film
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- MoMA
Moving words and optical patterns extend the experiment into time.
- 03
New York, 1951 (third version, after lost original of 1913)
New York, 1951 (third version, after lost original of 1913)
Bicycle Wheel
- Material / technique
- Metal wheel mounted on painted wood stool
- Attribution / role
- Collection / source
- The Museum of Modern Art
Artist-wide context
Choosing an ordinary object and placing it as art made the artist’s decision part of the question.
Materials, marks and colour
Media and surface
Paint, glass, manufactured objects and film deliberately cross disciplinary boundaries.
Marks and structure
An ordinary object’s position and title can become part of its structure.
Palette and light
Some works use muted colour; others replace colour decisions with the properties of found materials.