His most famous painting – Nude Descending a Staircase, Number 2 – Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), the most influential figure in ‘Contemporary Art’, was renowned for his strong contempt for the conventional ‘Fine Art’ field. He was somewhat related to the ‘Surrealist Movement’, a descendant of ‘Cubism’. However, Duchamp’s methodology and themes were not well received by the “Cubists”. This led to his inclination towards the ‘Dada Movement’. “Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2” was Marcel’s most famous and scandalous ‘dadaist’ work, which also became a turning point in his life.

Duchamp created “Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2″ with great enthusiasm in 1912. This pioneering work is a large 57.88″ X 35.12” oil on canvas work and is currently in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This monochrome work, mainly in yellow and its shades, is quietly a ‘cubist’ painting because of its geometric rather than figurative representation. What really sets it apart is the spirit of ‘Futurist Art’ infused into it. This painting barely has a background, except for the allusion to the dark ‘staircase’. Rather than an embodiment of sensuality, this painting is made up of around twenty images of a mechanically structured figure, arranged in a sequence above the ‘ladder’.

In line with the ‘cubist’ style, the glowing figure, silhouetted against a dark background, is difficult to distinguish as male or female, structurally. The sequence of images exemplifies the changing postures of the figure as it descends the stairs, a concept very similar to the composition of a strobe film, which is actually a sequence of still images. “Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2” is definitely the result of keen observation and diligence. It carries an element of brute force energy and futuristic vision.

This revolutionary ‘futurism’ and unorthodox methodology drew much opposition and negative criticism at its debut exhibition at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris, in 1912. Another reason for the poor response and eventually rejection of the painting was the backdrop. from the cover, emotions of contempt behind this work. Annoyed Duchamp reintroduced the painting at the 1913 International Exhibition of Modern Art. It again received criticism due to the common belief that it was a mere caricature of the much-revered subject of nudity, lacking artistic aesthetics.

Loved or hated, public attention to “Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2” refused to slacken. It became the subject of many American parodies, including musicals, books, and paintings. This story remarkably justifies the words of William Hazlitt: “When a thing ceases to be the subject of controversy, it ceases to be the object of interest.”