The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is organizing a major retrospective of Marcel Duchamp, the first in the U.S. since 1973. Curated by Michelle Kuo, Ann Temkin, and Matthew Affron, the exhibition titled "Marcel Duchamp" will run from April 12 through August 22 and feature over 300 artworks, including iconic pieces like *Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2* and *Fountain*. The curators describe the challenge as extreme, given Duchamp's deliberate confounding of traditional art systems, and they aim for a "deadpan accuracy" in presenting his work, including studies and replications as independent artworks.
This retrospective matters because Duchamp is considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, whose ideas—appropriation, self-referentiality, and the artist-as-prankster—paved the way for figures like Andy Warhol, Richard Prince, and Jordan Wolfson. The exhibition promises to correct decades of misreadings and myths about Duchamp's career, particularly revealing the extent of his artistic output during his later years, often overshadowed by his reputation for playing chess. It offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reassess a foundational figure in modern and contemporary art.