Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was a French painter, sculptor, and chess player, later a naturalized American citizen, who is considered one of the most influential and innovative figures in 20th-century art. His career began with painting, exploring styles such as Cubism and Futurism, but he achieved international notoriety with his work *Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2* (1912), which scandalized the public at the Armory Show in New York. Duchamp is best known for introducing the concept of the "ready-made," everyday objects presented as works of art to challenge the very idea of artistic creation and the role of the artist. The most famous of these is *Fountain* (1917), a urinal signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt." Other key works include *The Large Glass* and *L.H.O.O.Q.* His intellectual and iconoclastic approach profoundly influenced the Dada and Surrealist movements and laid the foundations for the development of Conceptual Art, leaving a lasting legacy that redefined how a work of art is conceived.