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About Marcel Duchamp
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I was going to do some research on surrealism, but Marcel Duchamp suddenly jumped into my sight. His pieces as well as his lifestyle have some really intriguing parts.
According to the research, he wasn't intending to be an artist while growing up, and only did so because he wasn't willing to serve for the military. When he went to the art school, his talent didn't seem to be discovered, he tried different styles, including fauvist (I also noticed he later married the post-daughter-in-law of Henry Martis and Martis was the founder of fauvism), impressionism, post-impressionism.
Later he figured these traditional arts were not what he likes, and decided to create something new. He mocked the traditional art----he added mustache on Mona Lisa and claimed that there's no perfection in art, this idea later made him the representative of Surrealism and Dadaism. The action of sending a photo named Fountain (which is a picture of a urinal) to the museum was a mock of traditional art.
He is considered one of the authorities of the long history of art while proposing to put aside the authority and make art without bounded by the previous art pieces. As one the most influential artists, Marcel has being playing with art and did creations that challenged the art field in his own way.