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Tomkins informs us that Duchamp
was born July 28, 1887, in the village of Blainville, France He was one of six children from a family of artists. His mother
was a musician, and two older brothers, Gaston and Raymond and even his younger sister Suzanne had also persued a life of
art. Studying in Paris, France at the Julian Academy along side his brothers in 1904, he showed an insatiable talent for art,
with an influence of Cezanne.
First painting in the Fauve, impressionist,
and even dabling in cubism, Duchamp lieved through the many art movements, adapting his brush, but not his mind to the ever
changing face of art. On the topic of Cubists, and their beliefs, Tomkins states that Duchamp for his part, found that the
Cubists singularly lacked in humor, at least where their ar twas concerned, and took no part in their endless discussions
of Cubist theory, which bored him stiff (Tomkins, 13).
Only painting between the years 1902
- 1923, It took many years for the art world to except Marcel Duchamp into their community, and wasn't even widely excepted
until after 1950 (Tomkins, 7). As Tomkins states, how has he managed
to serve as inspiration and guide to so many artists, from the Dadists, to the surrealists o fthe 1920's and 1930's to the
current crop of young american painters, for whom, Duchamp, became a legendary figure.
Once asked whether there had been much laughter in
his childhood home, Duchamp thought for a moment, and replied, "No, not really. My mother was the saddest person - she was
quite deaf, and it made her rather somber"(tomkins, 15). Not quite sure whether this was another form of his Humor, a
darker side, or just a Duchamp being himself, one can assume that fromt he everyday, to interviews, and even his
all around belief in art, he took it in stride, and never took it too seriously, just humorously.
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