af en kunsthandler fra San Francisco for 300 USD. I "Bruden", 1912, (Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection) er titlen skrevet på lærredet, men der ses ingen ligheder med menneskets form eller referencer til en brud, men da titlen ikke er uvæsentlig kan billedet måske opfattes som en analyse af en brud, hvis opsplittede dele minder om en avanceret maskine.
Duchamps radikale og revolutionære ideer foregreb grundlæggelsen af Dada bevægelsen i Zürich i 1916. .
I 1914 opfandt og introducerede Duchamp sine readymades, massefremstillede genstande, der udstilledes som kunstværker, fx satte han sin signatur og en ofte provokerende titel på fabriksfremstillede genstande fx en pissoirkumme, et flaskestativ eller en sneskovl og udstillede dem som kunstværker. Duchamps readymades fik en revolutionerende betydning for mange malere og skulptører. I 1915 rejste Duchamp til New York, hvor kredsen omkring ham inkluderede Katherine Dreier og Man Ray, som han i 1920 grundlage Société Anonyme sammen med, samt Louise and Walter Arensberg, Francis Picaia og andre avantgarde kunstnere. 
Efter at have spillet skak intenst i ni måneder i Buenos Aires vendte Duchamp tilbage til Frankrig i sommeren 1919, og knyttede sig til Dada gruppen i Paris. I 1919 "forbedrede" han en reproduktion af Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" ved at sætte mustache og fipskæg på, og kaldte sit billede "L.H.O.O.Q.", som betyder noget i retningen af "Hun har en varm røv" (Elle a chaud au cul). I New York i 1920 skabte hans sin første motordrevne konstruktion. Samme år opfandt han Rrose Sélavy, hans kvindelige alter ego eller andet jeg - fotografen Man Ray tog flere billeder af Duchamp som Rrose Sélavy. Hun levede videre som en person, som Duchamp gennem sit liv tilskrev flere af sine arbejder fx readymades, ordspil og digte. I 1923 flyttede Duchamp tilbage til Paris og syntes at have opgivet kunsten til fordel for skak, men hans kunstneriske eksperimenter fortsatte.
Fra midten af 1930'erne samarbejde han med surrealisterne og deltog i deres udstillinger. I 1942 bosatte han sig permanent i New York og blev amerikansk statsborger i 1955. Gennem 1940'erne arbejdede og udstillede han med "Surrealist émigrés" i New York. Fra 1946-66 arbejdede han i al hemmelighed på sin konstruktion med navnet "Etant donnés: 1. la chute d’eau 2. le gaz d’éclairage" (Det givne: 1. Vandfald, 2. belysningsgas), værket bestod af en gammel trædør, mursten, fløjl, kviste, læder, glas, linoleum, en elektrisk motor mv. Duchamp udarbejdede en manual som forklarede og illustrerede tilblivelsesprocessen. Når beskueren af værket træder foran døren aktiveres lys og en motor, beskueren kan gennem to kighuller i døren se konstruktionen bag døren, på et leje af kviste ligger en nøgen kvindefigur/form på ryggen holdende en gaslampe i hånden, bag hende ses et næsten romantisk landskab med et vandfald - værket betragtes som Duchamps hovedværk og tilhører Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Duchamp, Marcel (Henri-Robert-Marcel) (1887-1968). French-American artist and chessplayer. He was born in Blainville, and he died in Neilly-sur-Seine, France. 
In 1904 Duchamp moved to Paris, where his brothers, the artists, Jacques Villon and Raymond Duchamp-Villon already lived. From 1904-05 he studied painting at Académie Julian.
In 1909 he exhibited for the first time at Salon des Indépendants and Salon d’Automne in Paris.
His earliest paintings were influenced by Post-Impressionism - first and foremost Cézanne. About 1913 he gave up the traditional painting for variant experimental forms e.g. a dynamic version of Analytic Cubism close to Futurism, he composed motion sequences of several successive photographic shots.
In 1912 his painting "Nude Descending a Staircase, No.2", (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection) was shown at Salon de la Section d’Or in Paris, and in 1913 when shown at the Armony Show, International Exhibition of Modern Art, New York, the painting caused a scandal - it was a remarkable painting, an avant-garde jumble with elements from Cubism, Futurism, the chromophotography (colour photograph) and silent film. The painting was sold for 300 USD to a San Francisco art dealer. In his painting "The Bride", 1912, (Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection), the title is written on the canvas, there is no similarity to the human body or references to a bride, however the title is not unimportant, and perhaps the painting can be understand as an analysis of at bride - the painting looks like an advanced machine.
Duchamp's revolutionary ideas anticipated the founding of the Dada movement in Zürich in 1916.
In 1914 he introduced his readymades, mass-produced objects exhibited as work of art, Duchamps put his signature and often a provocative title on his mass-produced objects e.g. an urinal, a bottle stand or a shovel. 
I 1915 Duchamp went to New York, where he came into contact with e.g. Katherine Dreier and Man Ray, with whom he founded Société Anonyme. After playing chess in Buenos Aires for almost a year, he returned to France in 1919 and joined the Paris Dada group. In 1919 he "improved" a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" with a mustache and pointed beard and named his work "L.H.O.O.Q." (Elle a chaud au cul/she has a hot ass). In 1920 in New York he created his first motor driven construction. The same year he invented Rrose Sélavy, his female alter ego - the photographer Man Ray took several pictures of Duchamp as Rrose Sélavy - she became a person to whom Duchamp through his life ascribes a great deal of his works e.g. readymades, poems and puns. In 1923 Duchamp returned to Paris and seemed to have given up art in favour of chess, however his artistic experiments continued. From the mid-1930s he co-operated with the surrealists and took part in their exhibitions. In 1942 he settled permanently in New York, and in 1955 he became American citizen. Throughout the 1940s he worked and exhibited together with the "Surrealist émigrés" in New York. From 1946-66 he secretly worked on his construction "Etant donnés: 1. la chute d’eau 2. le gaz d’éclairage" (Given: 1. the Waterfall, 2. the Illuminating Gas) - the work consisted of an old wood door, bricks, velvet, leather, twigs, glass, motor etc, he prepared this "Manual of Instructions for the Assembly of "Etant donnés"", where the creation process was explained and illustrated. The spectators steps in front of the door activate light and a motor, through two peepholes in the door, the spectators can look at the construction behind the door, on a bed of twigs lies a nude female figure holding a gaslamp in her hand, the scene background is an almost romantic landscape with a waterfall - the work is regarded as Duchamp's chief work, it belongs to Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA.

Fra 1933 var Grosz bosat i USA - efter sin ankomst til USA prøvede han at tilpasse sig det amerikanske samfund ved at male mange partier fra New York, og hans satiriske arbejder blev erstattet af mareridtsforestillinger og scener med krigens brutalitet. I 1937 blev hans billeder af nazisterne stemplet som degenereret kunst, og omkring 300 af hans billeder på de tyske museer blev beslaglagt og vist på den officielle Nazi udstilling "Entartete Kunst" i München i 1937. I 1941 vistes en retrospektiv udstilling af hans værker på Museum of Modern Art i New York. I 1946 udkom hans selvbiografi "Et lille ja og et stort nej" (A Little Yes and a Big No). I 1947-48 introducerede han "Stickman" temaet, hvor klumpede figurer på stokagtige ben tog del i mareridts-aktiviteter. I sine sidste år begyndte han at male harmløse landskaber og stilleben, men fortsatte også med at sine pessimistiske billeder. 
I 1958 vendte han tilbage til Tyskland, men døde kort efter i en ulykke. 
Grosz udstillede i København på "Nyere tysk kunst", Den Frie, 1932.

Grosz, George born Georg Gross in Berlin, he changed his name in 1916, (1893-1959). German painter, graphic artist and caricaturist. From 1909-11 he studied at Königlichen Kunstakademie (Royal Academy of Arts) in Dresden, in 1912 at Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Berlin and in 1913 at Académie Colarossi in Paris. In 1910 his first caricatures were printed. He served in the German Army from 1914-15, he spent the last years of World War I in Berlin, where he created anti-war drawings and paintings.
From 1918-20 Grosz was member of the Berlin Dadaist group - in Grosz' understanding the world was a mental abnormality cabinet (perhaps he influenced or was influenced by the sceneries in the classic German Expressionist horror film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", 1919), his propaganda paintings did not correspond with the Dadaists ideas about anti-art. In the following decade he illustrated magazines and designed sceneries. His sharp commentaries on the German society were obvious in the series "Ecce Homo" (Latin for Behold the Man), 1922, and in 1923 an album, containing satirical paintings attacking the German society, was confiscated by the police.
In his grotesque satire from the inter-war period, he ruthless unveiled e.g. the bourgeoisie, the profiteers and the herrenvolk mentality placed side by side with the street beggars in a milieu of luxury villas and slum districts - his paintings represented the modern city life with its desire, passion and crime - the cities chaos reflected the human amoral. Together with the political photomontage artist John Heartfield and Heartfield's brother Wieland Hertzfelde Grosz was commissioned to create a war propaganda film for Germany, but they produced a cartoon, it does not exist anymore. In 1922 Grosz joined the German Communist Party, a journey to Russia later this year, together with the Danish writer Martin Andersen Nexoe, where he met Lenin and Trotzki, disillusioned him, he felt to be out of step with the Russian political opinions and he resigned from the Communist Party in 1923, the following year he became leader of Berlin's Rote Gruppe (Red Group), an organization of revolutionary artists - Grosz was the first German artist, who created art for society's sake (the contrast was "art for art's sake). His attack against Hitler in 1925 made his decision to leave German inevitable. In 1928 an accusation had been made against him because of the "Hintergrund" (backdrop) - a series of sketches for the decoration of the Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek's "The Good Soldier Svejk".
From 1933 Grosz lived in the US - after his arrival he tried to adapt into the American society by painting views of New York, and his satirical works were replaced by nightmare visions and scenes of the brutality of war. In 1937 his works were denounced as degenerate art, and about 300 of his paintings on German museums were confiscated and showed at the official Nazi exhibition of Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) opened in Munich on the 19th July 1937. In 1941 a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1946 his autobiography "A Little Yes and a Big No" was published. In 1947-48 he introduced the Stickman subject - lumpy figures in nightmare activities. During his last years he began painting harmless landscapes and still-lifes and continued with his pessimistic paintings.
In 1958 he returned to Germany shortly after he died in an accident. (Dadaism, Futurism, Neue Sachlichkeit)

Omkring 1923 begyndte han arbejdet på sit livsværk, den første Merzbau (først kaldet "Den erotiske elendigheds katedral"), der blev en forløber for Environments*. Konstruktionsprojektet fyldte adskillige rum og etager i hans hus i Hannover. 
Merzbau var en kombination af collage, skulptur og arkitektur. Merzbau var ufærdigt, da Schwitters forlod Hannover i 1937 og blev ødelagt under et bombeangreb i 1943. Forfatteren Elizabeth Burns Gamard udgav i 2000 "Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau: The Cathedral of Erotic Misery".
Schwitters deltog i udstillingen Abstrakte und surrealistische Malerei und Plastik i Zürich i 1929. I 1932 tilsluttede hans sig gruppen Abstraction-Création og skrev for deres tidsskrift af samme navn. I 1936 deltog han i udstillingen Cubism and Abstract Art and Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism på Museum of Modern Art, New York. I 1937 stemplede nazisterne Schwitters arbejder som Entartete Kunst (degenereret kunst), og han flygtede til Lysaker i Norge, hvor han konstruerede sin anden Merzbau, der blev offer for en brand. Efter tyskerne invasion af Norge i 1940, lykkedes det Schwitter at undslippe til England, hvor han var interneret i over et år - i 1945 bosatte han sig i Kendal, hvor han i 1947 begyndte at arbejde på sin tredje Merzbau, som han efterlod ufærdigt ved sin død året efter.

*Environmental Art, kunstretning især kendt fra 1960'erne, retningen inddrager beskueren i kunstværket ved at bygge det rumligt op. Environments kan have karakter af assemblage, hvori der kan indgå figurer skabt af kunstneren og objekter fra dagligdagen. 

Schwitters, Kurt (1887-1948). German collage artist and writer, born in Hanover, where he was christened Herman Edward Karl Julius, he died in Kendal in England. From 1908-09 he studied at the Arts and Crafts school in Hanover, and from 1909-14 he studied art and architecture at the Art Academy in Dresden. In 1917 he came into contact with members of the Blue Rider group, he was influenced by Franz Marc and Kandinsky - after this he became Dadaist.
In 1918 he made friends with Arp and was influenced by his collage technique - Schwitters adopted his own nonsense word for his collages, he called them Merzbilden (Merz pictures) - he had extracted the word from the name Kommerzbank. Merz was a German version of Dadaism. His earliest Merz-pictures were made in 1919, the year where he for the first time exhibited at Galleri Der Sturm in Berlin. 
In 1919 he wrote the Merz-poems "Anna Blume" (Eve Blossom), and in 1921 "The Ursonate", a sound poem, the poem begins with: "Fümms bö wö tää zää Uu, pögiff, kwii Ee". From 1919-23 he created a series of Merz pictures. In 1922, together with Arp, he participated in Kongress der Konstructivisten in Weimar, where he met Theo van Doesburg and became influenced by his work and De Stijl. He allied himself with the avant-garde artists - the Dadaists, the Bauhaus artists, e.g. Schlemmer, Kandinsky, Klee, Gropius and Feininger and a new generation of Constructivists from Eastern Europe and the Netherlands e.g. Moholy-Nagy, Lissitsky and among these Theo van Doesburg. Schwitters's Dada activities included his Merz-Matineen and Merz-Abende, where he introduced his poetry. From 1923-32 he published the magazine MERZ.
About 1923 Schwitters started to make his first Merzbau (Merz Building), his life's work, a construction project, first named The Cathedral of Erotic Misery - Merzbau became the forerunner of Environments. Merzbau was a combination of collage, sculptor and architecture, it was left unfinished when he fled Hannover in 1937 and destroyed during a bombing raid in 1943. 
Schwitters participated in the exhibition Abstrakte und surrealistische Malerei und Plastik in Zurich i 1929. In 1932 he joined the group Abstraction-Création and wrote for the magazine of the same name. In 1936 he took part in the exhibition Cubism and Abstract Art and Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism at Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1937 Schwitters was branded degenerate by the Nazis, his work was condemned as Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art), and he fled to Norway, where he started to make his second Merzbau, this version became the victim of a fire. 
When the German invasion of Norway began on April 9, 1940, he succeeded in escaping to England, where he was interned until November 1941 - in 1945 he settled down in Kendal, where he in 1947 started to make his third Merzbau, which he was left unfinished at his death the following year.

Øvrige dadaister: 
Tristan Tzara alias Samy Rosenstein (1896-1963), rumænsk-fransk lyriker Medstifter af dadaismen i Zurich 1916. Skrev manifester "Sept manifestes dada" (1924). Bragte dadaismen til Frankrig og sammen med Francis Picabia førte han an i de parisiske dadaisters demonstrationer. Fra 1930 arbejdede han på at forene surrealismen og marxismen. 
Max Ernst (1891-1976) - dadaist og surrealist, tysk maler, grafiker og billedhugger. Mekanisk menneske. Collageteknik. På Louisiana i Humlebæk kan ses nogle af hans skulpturer. Kom i 1924 til Paris og var fra 1941 bosat i USA. Se surrealisme.
Francis Picabia (1878-1953). Fransk maler og grafiker. Impressionistiske landskaber, kubist og senere en af de førende dadaistiske kunstnere. 
Samt: Man Ray. Meret Oppenheim. Raoul Hausmann. Hannah Hoch. Sven Dalsgaard (1914-1999).

Fantasi-kunst eller Fantasi er en kunst, der er skabt ud fra kunstneres indre verden, og de realistiske omgivelser spiller ikke den store rolle. Fantasi og virkelighed kan blandes sammen, og der er lighedspunkter med surrealismen. Fantasi er i højere grad afhængig af en sindstilstand end af en speciel stil. Fantasiens malere har det fælles, at de tror på fantasien, det indre øje er vigtigere end den ydre verden. Billeder set med kunstnerens indre øje kan forekomme og være meget private, men er det ikke nødvendigvis, for der kan ligge kontrol, filter og bevidsthed bag det, som kunstneren ønsker at vise beskueren.

New York (1964), to store paneler til Lincoln Center i New York (1966), glasmosaikruder til The Metropolitan Opera House (The Met) i New York (1967), glasmosaik-vinduer til den gotiske Metz-katedral i Frankrig (1968), et glasmosaik-vindue til den gotiske katedral i Rheims i Frankrig (1974). Chagall beskæftigede sig i sine billeder med fantasier og drømme, han er vanskelig at rubricere, hans kunst er mangfoldig og uberegnelig, den er en blanding af det naive og det raffinerede, den er fantasi, ekspressionisme, kubisme og surrealisme, den er anderledes portrætter,  eventyrlige, fantastiske, forvrængede interiører og eksteriører, spillemænd, flyvende dyr og mennesker, realistiske og urealistiske farvevalg. Anonyme ansigter og psykologiske fysiognomier. Korsfæstelser, engle og meget mere ses i Chagall's billedverden. 
Chagall døde i Saint-Paul-de-Vence i Frankrig. "Marc Chagall Museum" blev åbnet i 1997 i Vitebsk.

Chagall, Marc (Mark Zakharovich Shagal) (1887-1985), Russian-born French painter and stained glass artist, born in Vitebsk, Russia, into a Jewish working-class family. From 1907-10 he studied painting at the "Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts" in St. Petersburg.
He moved to Paris in 1910, where he associated with the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and painters such as Robert Delauney, Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger and Amedeo Modigliani, he discovered Fauvism and Cubism, and was in briefly touched by Futurism. He participated in the "Salon des Indépendants" and the "Salon d’Automne" in 1912. His first solo exhibition was held in 1914 at "Galerie der Sturm" in Berlin.
Chagall visited Russia in 1914, and was prevented from returning to Paris because of the outbreak of Word War One. He settled in Vitebsk, where he married Bella Rosenberg. He was appointed Commissar for Art in 1918. He founded the "Vitebsk Popular Art School" and directed it until disagreements with the Suprematists resulted in his resignation in 1920. He moved to Moscow and executed his first stage designs for the "State Jewish Chamber Theater". 
In 1923 Chagall returned to France, where he met the publisher Ambroise Vollard through whom, he received commissions to illustrate various publications. In Paris he met Paul Eluard, Max Ernst and Gala, the muse and wife of Salvador Dali, who want him to join the Surrealist movement, but Chagall refused. During the 1930s, he traveled to Palestine, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland, and Italy. In 1933, the "Kunsthalle Basel" held a retrospective exhibition of his work. 
During World War II, Chagall fled to the US, where he had been invited to settle. In 1945 he executed the scenery and costumes for Stravinsky's "Firebird" for presentation by the Ballet Theatre of New York. In 1946 he was given a retrospective exhibition at "The Museum of Modern Art" in New York. In 1948 he settled permanently in France. In 1951 he visited Israel and executed his first sculptures. During the 1960s, Chagall traveled widely, often in association with large-scale commissions he received, among these were stained glass windows for the Synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem (1962), the ceiling for "The Paris National Opera" (1964), a stained glass window for the United Nations building, New York (1964), two huge panels for "The Lincoln Centre", New York (1966), murals for the Metropolitan Opera House, New York (1967), stained glass windows for the gothic cathedral of Metz, France (1968), a stained glass window for the gothic Cathedral in Rheims, France (1974). Chagall died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in France. The house in Vitebsk, in which he was born, is now "The Marc Chagall museum", opened in 1997.

Øvrige kunstnere
Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978). Italiensk maler. Fantasi og surrealistiske billeder med uhyggelig stemning - se surrealisme.
Paul Klee (1879-1940) - Inspireret af kubisme, primitiv kunst. børnetegninger. "Ideogrammer". Se ekspressionisme.
Mark Tobey (1890-1976). Amerikansk maler. Interesse for orientalsk kultur. "Broadway Norm" (1935) det største af billederne i en serie ved navn "Hvid skrift". Små tegn i urolige farver.