1887-1968. US artist, born in France. He
achieved notoriety with his Nude Descending a
Staircase 1912 (Philadelphia Museum of Art),
influenced by Cubism and Futurism. An active
exponent of Dadaism, he invented
`ready-mades', everyday items like a bicycle
wheel on a kitchen stool, which he displayed
as works of art. A major early work that
focuses on mechanical objects endowed with
mysterious significance is La Mariee mise a
nu par ses celibataires, meme/The Bride
Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even 1915-23
(Philadelphia Museum of Art). Duchamp
continued to experiment with collage,
mechanical imagery, and abstract sculpture
throughout his career. He lived mostly in New
York and became a US citizen in 1954.