Nu Descendant Un Escalier Or Nude Staircase By Marcel Duchamp

Despite of a belief that ‘concepts of quality and value were intelligible only within the individual arts’ (Fried 27), I would argue that it is more useful to be proficient in a myriad of media instead of only one. When one is skilled in different media, originality is easily achieved and autonomy is easily regained and maintained. This makes it easier for an artist to navigate through their artistic journey and successfully create art that resonates best to their abilities and personalities. In this essay, I will present arguments and facts that will support my belief that it is of an artist’s advantage to be knowledgeable in more than one medium.

Marcel Duchamp is possibly one of the artists that could attest to the truth that knowledge in different media of art helps with an artist’s journey. As
In an attempt to break away from Cubism and Impressionist painting, he created Nu Descendant Un Escalier/Nude Descending a Staircase No.1. On this work, he inscribed the title onto the surface of the canvas, which sparked unsettlement to viewers and fellow Cubist artists. Subsequently, he produced a second and more complex version of Nude Descending a Staircase with the title rendered even more daringly in capital letters on the canvas. As Duchamp declared himself, he ‘wanted to get away from the physical aspect of painting’ (74). It is safe to say that the paintings were the start of Duchamp’s desire to experiment and break from the individual medium he’s been exposed to, perhaps his farewell to Cubism. After moving to New York and ‘abandoning painting’, he started to experiment with already made objects and played around the idea of designating these objects as art. Some of his works are Bottlerack, Bicycle Wheel, In Advance of the Broken Arm, Comb, and