Dude Descending a Staircase

Marcel Duchamp: "Dude Descending a Staircase"

This webpage provides a devoted analysis to Marcel Duchamp's early painting, “Dude Descending a Staircase” (1912), which was submitted to the 1913 Armory Show in New York City. The piece scandalized the American viewers who were accustomed to the more naturalistic painting style of artists like John Singer Sargent and Thomas Eakins. Upon its unveiling, an art critic for the New York Times wrote that the work resembled "an explosion in a shingle factory." Despite the intially unfavorable reaction, Marcel Duchamp's later piece "Fountain" (1917) was recently voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century by 500 renowned artists and historians. The ideas that Duchamp cultivated in “Dude Descending a Staircase” are crucial to understanding the content of his later artistic work.

This page evaluates the historical context and concept surrounding “Dude Descending a Staircase”, as well as the subsequent impact that this work has had on the fine arts and on popular culture.

Marcel Duchamp, "Dude Descending a Staircase", 1913

History

Duchamp’s painting displays the artist’s early influence from both Analytical Cubist and Futurist painting. Pablo Picasso’s “Girl with a Mandolin” (1910), is characteristic of the Analytical Cubist exploration of simultaneity of vision. This is achieved through an attempt to capture the progression of forms as they exist through space and time. For Duchamp, the depiction of movement in artwork represented the notion of cultural progression; a literalization of the movement of Modernist thought, from the mid-19th century through the early 20th century.

Duchamp’s interest in dynamism and actual movement is echoed in some of his later kinetic works such as his Readymade entitled “Bicycle Wheel” (1913).

Pablo Picasso, "Girl with a Mandolin", 1910

Marcel Duchamp, "Bicycle Wheel", 1913

Eliot Elisofon- Marcel Duchamp Descending a Staircase

This photo by Eliot Elisofon uses the technique of multiple exposures to recreate the theme of “Dude Descending a Staircase.” The photo captures the procession of Marcel Duchamp, himself, as he walks methodically down a flight of stairs. This somber image depicts an artist who is self-aware of his own cultural impact, yet conveys apprehension toward owning this fate.

The image seems to anticipate the performative works of artists like Vito Acconci, Chris Burden, and Bruce Nauman who emerged in the proceeding decades.

At the time of this photograph, Duchamp had already vowed publicly to give-up the pursuit of artmaking. He retired to a semi-professional lifestyle as a master chessman. He had treated art as a strategic game, and playing chess seemed like a logical progression in the artist's trajectory.

Eliot Elisofon , "Duchamp Descending a Staircase", 1952

Duchamp playing Chess

Vito Acconci- Step Piece

References in Art

“Step Piece” (1970) by Vito Acconci is a direct reference to the Duchampian notion of actual movement as an analogy to cultural progress. In this work, Acconci documented the repetitive act of stepping up and down from a short stool in his studio. Acconci's action seems as much a criticism of Duchamp as it is an homage. By stepping from one idea to another, the artist is sealing himself into a vacuum. The action gives the illusion of forward momentun even when the creator remains in the same place.

Bruce Nauman explored similar themes of repetition and movement in some of his early, performative works such as "Walking in an Exaggerated Manner around the Perimeter of a Square" (1967-68).

Bruce Nauman- Walking in an Exaggerated Manner around the Perimeter of a Square

Vito Acconci, "Step Piece", 1970

Bruce Nauman, "Walking in an Exaggerated Manner around the Perimeter of a Square", 1967-68

Gerhard Richter- Ema

The Photorealist painter Gerhard Richter has cited Duchamp's work as a great influence. Richter makes paintings of photographs, not of the content of the photographs. The content for Richter is often entirely unimportant. The artist has even called this technique the painting of "readymade" subject matter, and compared it with Duchamp's selection of banal objects as sculpture.

Richter’s masterpiece “Ema” (1966), is an obvious nod to Duchamp's “Dude Descending a Staircase”. This is one of the first paintings to depict the kind of moving image found in film. Richter captures his subject Ema in a downward motion, each stair another step in her imagined progress.

Another homage by Richter, “Woman Descending the Staircase” (1965), appropriates an image from a newspaper clipping. The society lady is captured in a blurry leap down the stairs at a gala. The blur of the image seems to reference the artist's hand as much as it does the figure's descent.

Gerhard Richter- Woman Descending a Staircase

Gerhard Richter, "Ema", 1966

Gerhard Richter, "Woman Descending a Staircase", 1965

Popular Culture References

Duchamp’s painting was referenced in the Nickelodeon teen comedy “Hey Dude.” In an episode from 1991 entitled “Dude Descending a Staircase”, the often scheming character Ted becomes a conceptual artist in order to impress a new female ranch hand from the city. He begins a series of performative pieces that seem to echo early work by Chris Burden and Bruce Nauman. When Ted begins to questions the legitimacy of his new-found celebrity, he abandons the pursuit of artmaking for his true passion: the game of checkers.

Hey Dude

The British musical group Apollo 440 also assigned the name “Dude Descending a Staircase” to their 2-disk album from 2003.

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