Suzanne Duchamp (October 20, 1889 – September 11, 1963) was a French Dadaist painter. Born in Blainville-Crevon, Seine-Maritime in the Haute-Normandie Region of France, she was the fourth of six children born into the artistic family of Eugene and Lucie Duchamp. Suzanne Duchamp was the younger sister of:
- Jacques Villon nee Gaston Duchamp (1875 - 1963), painter, printmaker
- Raymond Duchamp-Villon (1876 - 1918), sculptor
- Marcel Duchamp (1887 - 1968), painter, sculptor and author
She began her studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in her native Rouen when she was 16. Her early works reflected Impressionism and cubism. At age 21, she married a local pharmacist but quickly divorced, moving to the Montparnasse Quarter of Paris to be near her brother Marcel and to expand her artistic career. For female painters at the time it was difficult to get full consideration. However, because of her older brothers growing prominence in the arts community, at age 22, she had her first major exhibit at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. After the outbreak of World War I, she served as a nurse in Paris producing virtually nothing until 1916 when Jean Crotti returned to Paris, bearing news of Marcel and of the exciting art being made in New York. After the war, the first of her Dadaist works appeared. Completed in 1919, Multiplication Broken and Restored[1] is a prime example of her Dada work. That same year, she married artist Jean Crotti, whose painting she would greatly influence. As a wedding present, Marcel sent them instructions for a readymade which involved suspending a geometry textbook on the porch and letting the wind and rain gradually tear it apart. In 1920 Suzanne showed several of her works at the Salon des Indépendants, along with Francis Picabia and Crotti. In 1967, in Rouen, France, her brother Marcel helped organize an exhibition called Les Duchamp: Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Marcel Duchamp, Suzanne Duchamp. Some of this family exhibition was later shown at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris. She died in Neuilly-sur-Seine (Seine-Saint-Denis), France in 1963.
References
- Tomkins, Calvin, Duchamp: A Biography. Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1996. ISBN 0-8050-5789-7
