Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 is a 1912 painting by Marcel Duchamp.

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In the painting, Duchamp depicted motion by successive superimposed images, similar to motion pictures. The painting shows elements of both the Cubist and Futurist styles.

Related Topics:
Motion pictures - Cubist - Futurist

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Duchamp first submitted the work to appear in a Cubist show at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris, but jurist Albert Gleizes asked Duchamp's brothers, Jacques Villon and Raymond Duchamp-Villon, to have him volunarily withdraw the painting, or paint over the title that he had painted on the work and rename it something else.

Related Topics:
Salon des Indépendants - Albert Gleizes - Jacques Villon - Raymond Duchamp-Villon

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Of the incident he recalled,

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:I said nothing to my brothers. But I went immediately to the show and took my painting home in a taxi. It was really a turning point in my life, I can assure you. I saw that I would not be very much interested in groups after that.

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Much of the scandal about modern art at the 1913 Armory Show in New York was focused on the piece.

Related Topics:
Modern art - Armory Show - New York

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He submitted the painting to the 1913 Armory Show in New York City where Americans, accustomed to realistic art, were scandalized. An art critic for the New York Times wrote that the work resembled an explosion in a shingle factory, and cartoonists satirized the piece. It spawned dozens of parodies in the years that followed.

Related Topics:
1913 - Armory Show - New York Times

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The Philadelphia Museum of Art displays the painting. http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/modern_contemporary/1950-134-59.shtml

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