Marcel Duchamp Essay

During World War I, a group of artists came together and began a new art movement created to show their distaste towards the war, and the ideas of nationalism and materialism. This movement came to be called Dada, which is said to mean ‘hobby horse’ in French by some, but known as just baby talk by others. It was known to use Shock Art, thrusting vulgar language and scatological humour into the eye of the public, who were displeased with the new artworks. The creators said that it wasn’t a movement – the artists weren’t artists, and there was no art. It was simply humour, puns, passion, and sarcasm made to offend by artists who rebelled in any way they could – they used their skills as writers or artists to say that nothing in the world had meaning. That they wouldn’t take part in the new direction the world was going.
Dada only lasted seven years, spanning from 1916 to 1923, and was most often ready-made art, altered slightly and signed to be claimed as the artists. There was only one known rule of Dada, and that was to not follow any given rules. It became an international ‘non-movement’, as it was claimed to be, in the short time that it was being created. In 1923, …show more content…
Marcel Duchamp was born in 1887 and died in 1968, experiencing the movements of Conceptual art, Surrealism, Cubism, and Dada. He was well known for having a feminine alter ego called Rrose Sélavy who posed in a series of photographs taken by Man Ray. This alter ego was used almost as a joke to further the sarcastic elements of Dada, as some artworks were signed with the name Rrose Sélavy. Other artists such as Robert Desnos used the name in their own artwork. Desnos wrote poetry involving Rrose Sélavy, dubbing her the rightful queen of France. This, alongside the rest of Duchamps artworks, was created in an attempt to draw out a negative response from those who agreed with the idea of materialism and