Post by The Museum of Modern Art

Marcel Duchamp’s painting “Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2) (1912)” scandalized audiences at the legendary Armory Show in New York in 1913. The strange, abstract Cubist composition prompted widespread reviews, commentary, and satire, and was famously likened to an “explosion in a shingle mill” in "The New York Times.” Duchamp’s reputation preceded him when he arrived in New York in 1915, widely known as the painter of the notorious picture. Duchamp continued to shock the public throughout his six-decade career. His invention of the readymade as a form of sculpture altered the definition of what could be a work of art, exemplified by “Fountain (1917)," a mass-produced urinal turned on its back and signed “R. Mutt.” 🖼️ Explore the full breadth of Duchamp’s creative output in the retrospective “Marcel Duchamp,” on view through August 22—and scroll to see some of the reactions to this painting when it first appeared in 1913. — [1] Marcel Duchamp. Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), 1912. Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection. © 2026 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris/Estate of Marcel Duchamp [2] J.F. Griswold, “The Rude Descending a Staircase (Rush Hour at the Subway),” New York Evening Sun, March 20, 1913. Armory Show Scrapbooks and Ephemera, The Museum of Modern Archives, New York [3] Cartoon by John T. McCutcheon in The Evening Sun, April 9, 1913, Armory Show Scrapbooks and Ephemera, I.1. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York [4] Cartoon in The Evening Sun, March 30, 1913, Aline Farrelly Scrapbook on Modern Art in America, I.94. The Museum of Modern Art Archives, New York.