In the 1940s, Picasso was almost every painter's ghostly father. In the '50s it was Hans Hofmann who schooled the abstract expressionists. Now, with the '60s rage for pop, who should turn up to be the grandada of the new generation but Marcel Duchamp, at 77 the century's most indestructible enfant terrible. As far back as anyone can remember, Duchamp has exulted in controversy. In 1913 his Nude Descending a Staircase, described at the time as "an explosion in a shingle factory," was the belly blow of Manhattan's Armory Show. He dabbled...
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