Duchamp and the Modernist Movement in NYC with John Strausbaugh

Duchamp and the Modernist Movement in NYC with John Strausbaugh

Posted by Silver Disobedience on April 9, 2026

"Host Dian Griesel (Silver Disobedience) welcomes back New York biographer John Strausbaugh to discuss his new book, “Duchamp Takes New York,” exploring how Marcel Duchamp’s 1913 “Nude Descending a Staircase” stood out at the Armory Show and helped jolt American art from classical tradition into modernism. Strausbaugh explains why New Yorkers found Duchamp’s work amusing and provocative, how Duchamp escaped wartime Paris to arrive in New York as a celebrated figure, and how he challenged definitions of art with early conceptual and minimalist ideas. They also discuss why artists often gain value after death, what made 20th-century New York a magnet for cultural innovators, and the city’s embrace of bold individuality."

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