Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp was a French (later American) artist, writer, sculptor, best known for his works Nude Descending a Staircase, Fountain, The Large Glass, his contributions to Cubism, Dada, and Surrealism, and his influence on later artists and writers, associated with Conceptual Art, among others. He was also a passionate chess-player, and regarded chess a form of art. In addition to The Blind Man, he edited New York Dada with Man Ray in 1921, and in the 40s, co-edited the surrealist VVV, with David Hare, André Breton, and Max Ernst, and became involved with another surrealist magazine View. He sometimes appeared in drag under his pseudonym ‘Rrose Sélavy’. For a while he collaborated with Katherine Dreier, and Man Ray, on Société Anonyme, Inc., an experimental and pedagogical ‘museum of modern art.’ He has a cameo in René Clair’s short film Entr’acte (1924). In 1962, he joined Oulipo, as an American correspondent.