Marcel Duchamp

Born in Normandy in 1887, Marcel Duchamp upended the definition of art with his concept of the readymade — everyday objects designated as artworks, beginning with Bicycle Wheel in 1913 and culminating in Fountain, a porcelain urinal signed "R. Mutt" submitted to the 1917 Society of Independent Artists exhibition. His Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 caused a sensation at the 1913 Armory Show in New York. After moving to the United States he largely abandoned art-making for chess. Fountain was named the most influential artwork of the twentieth century in a 2004 poll of artists and historians. He died in 1968.