Marcel Duchamp - The Art of Chess

In the early 1920s a rumor circulated through the art worlds of Paris and New York that Marcel Duchamp - the artist best known for Nude Descending a Staircase, the sensation of the Armory Show of 1913, had decided to stop making art in order to devote his life to playing chess. Although Duchamp made no effort to refute this claim, and had indeed entered into regular tournament play, he would never abandon his career as an artist. He went so far as to suggest that the activity of playing chess be considered a component of his artistic expression. “I have come to the conclusion that while all artists are not chess players,” he memorably remarked, “all chess players are artists.”