Duchamp

<p>When is a urinal no longer a urinal? When <strong>Marcel Duchamp</strong> (1887–1968) declared it to be art. The uproar that greeted the French artist’s<em> Fountain</em> (1917), a porcelain urinal installed in a gallery, sent shock waves through the art world establishment that reverberate right through to today.<br /><br /> This<strong> essential introduction distills all the daring and the scandal of Duchamp’s practice</strong> into one essential overview not only of a pioneering creative but also of a critical moment in Western culture. From his groundbreaking blend of abstraction, Cubism, and Futurism in <em>Nude Descending a Staircase </em>(1912) to his forays into the now-iconic <strong>“readymades”</strong> such as <em>Bicycle Wheel</em> (1913) and <em>Bottle Rack</em> (1914) we explore how Duchamp<strong> consistently challenged the notion of what art is </strong>and, in so doing, opened up a world of conceptual possibilities beyond the “retinal” experience.</p>