Marcel Duchamp - his genius (Humanities)

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Choosing Marcel Duchamp

While Duchamp's beginnings as an artist began before WW1 in France he eventually influenced much of the WW2 movement & ideas on post-modern contemporary art in Europe and in the US, displaying a pluralist view and reinterpretation of the world in his work. Sure, there are other artists & literary figures that we can choose to rival his work but Duchamp displayed a consciousness of Modernism & a willingness to progress in the contemporary. His philosophy regarding his work reflects that of a progressive man whose genius was not lost to those around him. For this reason, I am recommending him for a 20th Century Genius Award in his contribution to the Arts & Humanities. A genius is a person whose intellectual capacity is exceptional putting forth creative, original & phenomenal work in the arts, academia, technology & sciences and by virtue of their contribution to knowledge allows for intellectual revolution.

He was born on the 28th of July 1887 (died on the 2nd of October, 1968), too close to the last few years of the 19th century. Already this period was marked with surrealistic perspectives both in the arts & in philosophies. His grandfather Emile Nicole was an art painter & engraver in their hometown of Bleineville-Crevon Seine-Maritime in Normandy, France. Duchamp's was a family deep into the arts & culture, music & humanities. His brothers Jacques, Raymond and sister Suzanne like him were encouraged by his parents Eugene & Lucie to feed their creative side. Duchamp's early education showed that he had a propensity for mathematics which would later on influence his 'exacting' techniques. The impressionist movement of the period affected young Duchamp - his brother Jacques preferred impressionism as well. His artwork at Academie Julian between 1904-1905 showed his own adaptations of post-impressionist styles in fauvism & cubism. His love for literature & philosophy plus his 'exacting' mathematical influence drove him to inject a sense of 'humour' through verbal puns in his art. It is in this period that he started the seed for his very own sense of artistic philosophy - he wanted to develop a style that engages the gazer where multiple meanings & reactions can be derived from.

In 1905 as part of military service training he learned typography & the printing process which he used as part of his arsenal. The fast life of his youth and his circle of artist friends growing, he soon managed to ...