Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp can be considered one of the founders of Dadaism and conceptual art. He became famous for, among other things, his 'ready mades': existing objects that he exhibited as works of art. The first was a bottle rack, which Duchamp exhibited in 1914. In 1917 he exhibited his most famous ready made, a urinoir entitled Fountain. The discussions that such works instigated caused a change in thinking about the value and meaning of art. When he grew older, he largely withdrew from the art world and concentrated on chess. With his vision on the role of the artist and the meaning of art, Marcel Duchamp exerted considerable influence on the development of visual arts after the Second World War.