Explosion in a Shingle Factory

Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, №2 (1912) resists categorization.

It mocks Cubism yet integrates Cubist principles; it combines a dash of whimsy Dada with mechanical Futurism; it prominently features a nude yet subverts traditional convention as to what a nude should be.

Nude was not well received by art critics. The New York Times bestowed the memorable label “an explosion in a shingle factory” on it, and it was spoofed with titles such as “The Rude Descending a Staircase (Rush Hour at the Subway)” and “A Staircase Descending a Nude.”

I named this blog after my favorite of these ridiculing titles for two reasons.

First, I want to acknowledge an artist, who challenged how we think of art and it’s very definition. Take a bow, Marcel!

Second, the title serves a reminder to keep an open mind while observing art. Nude, after all, was not painted in all seriousness, and pokes fun at convention while opening a forum for discussion on what exactly art is. What some might see as a catastrophic “explosion” can be viewed by others as a monumental achievement.

Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, №2, 1912