| Early Works & Mechanical Art |
Duchamp’s early art works align with Post-Impressionist styles and not necessarily mechanical art. He experimented with classical techniques and subjects. When he was later asked about what had influenced him at the time, Duchamp cited the work of Symbolist painter Odilon Redon, whose approach to art was not outwardly anti-academic, but quietly individual.
He studied art at the Académie Julian from 1904 to 1905, but preferred playing billiards to attending classes. During this time Duchamp drew and sold cartoons which reflected his ribald humor. Many of the drawings use verbal puns (sometimes spanning multiple languages), visual puns, or both. Such play with words and symbols engaged his imagination for the rest of his life.
In 1905, he began his compulsory military service with the 39th Infantry Regiment, working for a printer in Rouen. There he learned typography and printing processes—skills he would use in his later work.
Owing to his eldest brother Jacques’ membership in the prestigious Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture Duchamp’s work was exhibited in the 1908 Salon d’Automne, and the following year in the Salon des Indépendants. Duchamp also became lifelong friends with exuberant artist Francis Picabia after meeting him at the 1911 Salon d’Automne, and Picabia proceeded to introduce him to a lifestyle of fast cars and “high” living.
In 1911, at Jacques’ home in Puteaux, the brothers hosted a regular discussion group with Cubist artists, mechanical art artists and poets and writers also participated. The group came to be known as the Puteaux Group, or the Section d’Or. Uninterested in the Cubists’ seriousness, or in their focus on visual matters, Duchamp did not join in discussions of Cubist theory and gained a reputation of being shy. However, that same year he painted in a Cubist style and added an impression of motion by using repetitive imagery.
During this period Duchamp’s fascination with transition, change, movement, and distance became manifest, and as many artists of the time, he was intrigued with the concept of depicting the fourth dimension in art.