Marcel Duchamp Retrospective
Museum of Modern Art
April 12 – August 22, 2026
It is not every year that you can experience a comprehensive Marcel Duchamp retrospective, so being in New York City for its opening week felt especially fortunate. Although I had encountered many—perhaps nearly all—of these works at MoMA and other museums before, seeing them gathered in one space gave them new force and coherence. The exhibition felt exhilarating: the intimate photographs of Duchamp’s studio as he prepared the Étant donnés installation offered a rare glimpse into his process, while several lesser-seen sculptures revealed the wit and precision that often sit just beneath the surface of his work. The paintings, too, were remarkable—perhaps more compelling as historical artifacts than as conventional masterpieces, but powerful, nonetheless. Duchamp remains one of the greats, and his influence on my own thinking about art feels impossible to overstate. Five stars.
