The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has opened "Marcel Duchamp," the first comprehensive North American retrospective of the French artist in over 50 years. The exhibition, curated by Ann Temkin, presents Duchamp's multifaceted career across nine chronological sections, featuring controversial works like his readymades alongside more accessible pieces such as "Nude Descending a Staircase" (1912) and "Box in a Valise" (1935–41). The show aims to correct misperceptions that Duchamp was lazy or indifferent to craftsmanship, highlighting his attention to materiality and skill on his own terms.
This retrospective matters because Duchamp remains a deeply polarizing figure—revered as a guiding light for questioning art's boundaries and derided as a charlatan who killed traditional craftsmanship. His work, especially "Fountain" (1917), continues to spark debate about what constitutes art, making this exhibition a timely reexamination of his legacy. By placing his most provocative pieces in dialogue with more conventional works, MoMA seeks to offer a rounded portrait of an artist who challenged institutions and remains central to modern art discourse.