Marcel Duchamp

HenriRobertMarcel Duchamp was a French naturalized American painter sculptor chess player and writer whose work is associated with Cubism conceptual art and Dada although he was careful about his use of the term Dada and was not directly associated with Dada groups Duchamp is commonly regarded along with Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse as one of the three artists who helped to define the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the twentieth century responsible for significant developments in painting and sculpture Duchamp has had an immense impact on twentiethcentury and twenty firstcentury art By World War I he had rejected the work of many of his fellow artists like Henri Matisse as retinal art intended only to please the eye Instead Duchamp wanted to use art to serve the mind He is considered by many critics to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century and his output influenced the development of postWorld War I Western art He challenged conventional thought about artistic processes and rejected the emerging art market through subversive antiart He famously dubbed a urinal art and named it Fountain