Marcel Duchamp is considered one of the most important members of the avant-garde and a ground-breaker in 20th century art. As he provocatively reveals the relationship between art and life and the prerequisites for its existence - thus radically changing the notion of the work of art and its manufacturer - his influence extends well into the present. This book endeavours to trace the different periods of Duchamp´s oeuvre by means of a selection of his works, focussing mainly on aspects that influenced Jean Tinguely's oeuvre: the mechanical, movements and the optical, play and humour. His painting Nu descendant un escalier [Nude Descending a Staircase] from 1912, in which he dissects the movement of the nude into stills composed of abstract surfaces, thus creating a "static picture of movement", is but one example. The publication contains statements by Duchamp himself as well as essays by renowned authors on such topics as the emergence and development of the ready-made concept and its impact on the art of the 1960s. (German edition available 3-7757-1182-1, French edition available 3-7757-1196-1)

MARCEL DUCHAMP (1887–1968) zählt zu den einflussreichsten Künstlern der Moderne. Seine ab 1913 entstehenden Readymades, Objekte, Installationen, Text- und Wortspiele stellen den gängigen Kunstbegriff radikal in Frage.