马塞尔·杜尚对艺术作品、艺术家在工业自动化年代下的身份作出反思，对20世纪艺术的发展影响深远。他最初遵循同代人的步伐，尝试以现代艺术的方式创作，早期以塞尚（Cézanne）和印象派（Impressionists）的风格绘画；1910年后，他转向立体主义（Cubism）。他对传统美学标准的不敬，令他最终创立了著名的 “现成品”（readymades），宣告一场艺术革命的诞生。在他的第一件现成作品 “自行车轮”（Bicycle Wheel）（1913年，现已遗失），他提出了一个完全脱离传统艺术技巧的创作方法 ── 与之不同的是，他强调艺术作品概念的价值，通过讽刺、语带幽默的批评诱惑观众，不再侧重作品在传统美学层面的魅力。
虽然他于1920年成为国际象棋棋手的事迹为人所熟悉，但杜尚从未真正放弃过艺术世界。他继续创作不同凡响的艺术项目，如《手提箱里的盒子》（Box in a Valise）（1935-41）和《赋予》（Étant Donnés）（1946-66），策划不同引起哄动的展览。他被抽象表现主义画家威廉·德库宁（Willem de Kooning）贴切地形容为 “一个人的运动” （one-man movement），他与许多前卫运动有关，从立体主义到达达及超现实主义，令后来的波普（Pop）、极简主义（Minimalism）和概念艺术（Conceptual art）得以可能。 1950年代和1960年代，一众艺术家亦从他对艺术创作的非传统态度中得到启发，他亦随之广受尊重。他最大的遗产是他对现有规范的质疑、训戒、批判和戏谑，令超越现状得以可能。
杜尚1887年生于诺曼底一个艺术家家庭，他的兄弟姐妹中有画家雅克·维隆（Jacques Villon）、立体主义雕塑家雷蒙·杜尚·维隆（Raymond Duchamp-Villon）和达达艺术家苏珊·杜尚·克罗蒂（Suzanne Duchamp-Crotti）。 1904-05年，他在朱利安学院（Académie Julian）接受学术训练，他第一批作品流露了亨利·马谛斯（Henri Matisse）对他的影响。在1910年代早期，他创造出有他个人特色的立体主义，在《下楼的裸女二号》（Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2）（1912年）中到达顶峰，画作在1913年的纽约军械库展览（New York Armory Show）中引起极大回响。
杜尚人生大部分于法国和美国两地度过，1915-23年主要居住在纽约，1923-42年居住在巴黎，之后又回到纽约，并于1955年成为美国公民。他的第一次个展1937年于芝加哥艺术俱乐部（Arts Club of Chicago）举行，随后于1963年在帕萨迪纳艺术博物馆（Pasadena Art Museum）举行了他在美国的首个回顾展，并于1966年在伦敦泰特画廊（Tate Gallery, London）举行首次欧洲回顾展。自他于1968年去世后，杜尚的作品成为无数次展览的主题，并成为全世界多个最重要的博物馆永久馆藏的一部分。当中以费城艺术博物馆（Philadelphia Museum of Art）的杜尚馆藏最为丰富，全因阿伦斯伯格夫妇（Arensbergs）的慷慨捐赠，二人是杜尚的毕生好友及赞助人。
2023
Marcel Duchamp and the Lure of the Copy, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, Italy
2022
Marcel Duchamp: L.H.O.O.Q., Thaddaeus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria
Marcel Duchamp, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
2021
Please Touch: Marcel Duchamp and the Fetish, cur. Paul B. Franklin, Thaddaeus Ropac, London, UK; Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris Marais, France
2020
Hanging for 20 years of the Prix Marcel Duchamp 2020, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
Marcel Duchamp: The Barbara and Aaron Levine Collection, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA
Marcel Duchamp - baptism, Kunsthalle Marcel Duchamp | The Forestay Museum of Art, Cully, Switzerland
DUCHAMP THREADS THE NEEDLE, David Nolan Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Marcel Duchamp und der Jura, Musée de l'Hôtel-Dieu, Porrentruy, Switzerland
2019
MARCEL DUCHAMP: Das Unmögliche sehen, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart; Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin, Germany
2018
Marcel Duchamp. 100 Fragen. 100 Antworten., Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
The Essential Duchamp, Tokyo National Museum, Tokyo, Japan; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2017
Curatorial Studies 12: The 100th Anniversary of Duchamp's Fountain, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan
2016
Porte-Bouteilles, Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac, Paris, France
MARCEL DUCHAMP. Dada e Neo-Dada, Museo Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Ascona, Switzerland
The Slope of a Line – 100 Jahre Readymade, Daimler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2015
The Duchamp Effect, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, USA
2014
Marcel Duchamp, MMCA Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
What Marcel Duchamp Taught Me, The Fine Art Society, London, UK
Marcel Duchamp – La Peinture Même, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2013
Rural Readymade, University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge, Canada
Duchamp: Re-Made in Italy, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome, Italy
DUCHAMP and/or/in CHINA, UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China
Surrealism & Duchamp, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
Marcel Duchamp, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
2012
Marcel Duchamp in Munich 1912, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich; Kunstbau, Munich, Germany
Marcel Duchamp, Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH, USA
Duchamp the Messenger, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Marcel Duchamp: Le mystère de Munich, Architecture Museum of TU, Munich, Germany
Marcel Duchamp – A Game in A Game, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany
2011
Focus Gallery: Marcel Duchamp, Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL, USA
Lost and Found, Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, MI, USA
Marcel Duchamp, Moderna Museet Malmö, Malmö, Sweden
Marcel Duchamp, Belle Haleine: Eau de Voilette, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
2009
Marcel Duchamp: Chess Master, Saint Louis University Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO, USA
Marcel Duchamp: Étant donnés, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Frank Hesse. De ou par Marcel Duchamp, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn, Germany
Inventing Marcel Duchamp: The Dynamics of Portraiture, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA
2008
Marcel Duchamp Redux, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA, USA
Marcel Duchamp: Una obra que no es una obra de arte, Fundacion PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Marcel Duchamp: A work is not a work of art, Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil
2007
Marcel, Marcel, Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KT, USA
Spinning Straw, Masterworks Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
2006
Marcel Duchamp, Museo di Villa Croce, Genoa, Italy
2004
Mirrorical Returns: Marcel Duchamp and the 20th Century Art, National Museum of Art, Osaka; Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama, Japan
2003
Marcel Duchamp – Druckgraphik, Sammlung Hummel, Vienna, Austria
2002
Marcel Duchamp, Museum Jean Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland
Marcel Duchamp, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Germany
2001
MARCEL DUCHAMP: ARTIST–HUMORIST–PHILOSOPHER, California State University, University Art Gallery, Long Beach, CA, USA
9 Objects: A Tribute to Marcel Duchamp, Hollywood Centre, Hong Kong
Leading Lights of the 20th Century. Marcel Duchamp, Seen by Adrián Alemán and José Jiménez, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
1995
Marcel Duchamp, Respirateur, Staatliches Museum Schwerin, Schwerin, Germany
1994
Marcel Duchamp. To and From the Large Glass, Genia Schreiber University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
1993
Marcel Duchamp, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy
1991
Marcel Duchamp. Graphics, Bigi Art Space, Kyoto, Japan
1988
Übrigens sterben immer die anderen: Marcel Duchamp, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Marcel Duchamp, 'Fountain', Menil Foundation, Houston, TX, USA
Marcel Duchamp, la Sposa…e i Readymade, Accademia di Belle Arti di Bretra, Milan, Italy
1987
Marcel Duchamp. Das grafische Werk, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
Marcel Duchamp. Readymades. Estampes. Répliques, Genia Schreier University Art Gallery, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Marcel Duchamp: 19a. Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Marcel Duchamp als Zeitmaschine, Museum Hedendaagse Kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands
Apropos of Marcel Duchamp 1887/1987, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, USA
1986
Marcel Duchamp, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
1985
Marcel Duchamp's Notes, Fine Arts Gallery, School of Visual Arts, Florida State University, Miami, FL, USA
1984
Duchamp, Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona; Caja de Pensiones, Madrid, Spain
Marcel Duchamp. Works from the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, FL, USA
1982
Marcel Duchamp. La Pendule de Profile, Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers, France
1981
Marcel Duchamp, Seibu Takanawa, Karuizawa; Seibu Bijutsukan, Tokyo, Japan
1977
Marcel Duchamp, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
1975
The 'Large Glass' and Related Works, Taylor Hall Art Gallery, California State University, Chico, CA, USA
1974
Marcel Duchamp. A Retrospective Exhibition, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
1973
La Delicata Scacchiera. Marcel Duchamp, Palazzo Reale, Naples, Italy
1972
Marcel Duchamp. Drawings and Etchings for the 'Large Glass', Readymades, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
1968
Marcel Duchamp. The Mary Sisler Collection. 78 Works 1904–1963, National Art Gallery and Dominion Museum, Wellington; Robert McDougall Art Gallery, Christchurch, New Zealand; Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Western Australia Art Gallery, Perth, Australia
1966
The Almost Complete Works of Marcel Duchamp, Tate Gallery, London, UK
1964
Marcel Duchamp, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany
1963
Marcel Duchamp. A Retrospective Exhibition, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA, USA
1960
Marcel Duchamp, Bokkonsu, Stockholm, Sweden
Dokumentation über Marcel Duchamp, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Zürich, Switzerland
1959
Sur Marcel Duchamp, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK
1952
Marcel Duchamp, Amici della Francia, Milan, Italy
1937
Exhibition of Paintings by Marcel Duchamp, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
France
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, Paris
Israel
Israel Museum, Jerusalem
UK
Tate, London
USA
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Menil Collection, Houston, TX
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA