Editing Marcel Duchamp (section)

===''Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2''===
{{main|Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2}}

Duchamp's first work to provoke significant controversy was ''[[Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2]]'' ''(Nu descendant un escalier n° 2)'' (1912). The painting depicts the mechanistic motion of a nude, with superimposed facets, similar to motion pictures. It shows elements of the fragmentation and synthesis of the Cubists, as well as the movement and dynamism of the [[futurism (art)|Futurists]].

He first submitted the piece to appear at the Cubist [[Salon des Indépendants]], but [[Albert Gleizes]] (according to Duchamp in an interview with Pierre Cabanne, p. 31)<ref name="Peter Brooke">[http://www.peterbrooke.org.uk/a&r/Du%20Cubisme/Part%20two/duchamp Peter Brooke, The "rejection" of Nude Descending a Staircase] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140109091932/http://www.peterbrooke.org.uk/a%26r/Du%20Cubisme/Part%20two/duchamp |date=9 January 2014 }}</ref> asked Duchamp's brothers to have him voluntarily withdraw the painting, or to paint over the title that he had painted on the work and rename it something else. Duchamp's brothers did approach him with Gleizes' request, but Duchamp quietly refused. However, there was no jury at the Salon des Indépendants and Gleizes was in no position to reject the painting.<ref name="Peter Brooke" /> The controversy, according to art historian Peter Brooke, was not whether the work should be hung or not, but whether it should be hung with the Cubist group.<ref name="Peter Brooke" />

Of the incident Duchamp later recalled, "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."<ref>{{harvnb|Tomkins|1996|p=83}}</ref> Yet Duchamp did appear in the illustrations to ''[[Du "Cubisme"]]'', he participated in the ''[[La Maison Cubiste]] (Cubist House)'', organized by the designer [[André Mare]] for the [[Salon d'Automne]] of 1912 (a few months after the Indépendants); he signed the [[Section d'Or]] invitation and participated in the Section d'Or exhibition during the fall of 1912. The impression is, Brooke writes, "it was precisely because he wished to remain part of the group that he withdrew the painting; and that, far from being ill treated by the group, he was given a rather privileged position, probably through the patronage of Picabia".<ref name="Peter Brooke" />

The painting was exhibited for the first time at [[Galeries Dalmau]], ''Exposició d'Art Cubista'', Barcelona, 1912, the first exhibition of Cubism in Spain.<ref name="Robinson et al">[https://books.google.com/books?id=6EvIx6zOuqgC&q=dalmau&pg=PA319 William H. Robinson, Jordi Falgàs, Carmen Belen Lord, ''Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí''], Cleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Yale University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0300121067}}</ref> Duchamp later submitted the painting to the 1913 "[[Armory Show]]" in New York City. In addition to displaying works of American artists, this show was the first major exhibition of modern trends coming out of Paris, encompassing experimental styles of the European [[avant-garde]], including Fauvism, Cubism, and [[Futurism]]. American show-goers, accustomed to realistic art, were scandalized, and the ''Nude'' was at the center of much of the controversy.