October 01, 2026
Courtesy/Philadelphia Museum of Art
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968), Fountain, 1950 (replica of 1917 original), Porcelain urinal, 12 x 15 x 18 in, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 125th Anniversary Acquisition, Gift (by exchange) of Mrs. Herbert Cameron Morris, 1998, 1998-74-1. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / Association Marcel Duchamp.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art will open a major Marcel Duchamp exhibition this fall, bringing together more than 300 works for the first major U.S. retrospective devoted to the artist in over 50 years.
Opening Saturday, Oct. 10, “Marcel Duchamp” traces six decades of the artist’s career through paintings, sculptures, photography, film, printed works and the ordinary objects he transformed into art through his readymades. The exhibition remains on view through Jan. 31.
Among the best-known works are Fountain, Duchamp’s famous readymade based on a porcelain urinal; L.H.O.O.Q., his reproduction of the Mona Lisa altered with a mustache and beard; and Nude Descending a Staircase (No. 2), the painting that helped cement his reputation as a provocateur.
The retrospective also gives visitors a closer look at The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, better known as The Large Glass. Studies and other materials show how Duchamp developed the monumental work before visitors continue into the museum’s permanent Duchamp galleries to see it.
Another highlight is Box in a Valise, Duchamp’s miniature museum of his own work. The show brings together multiple versions of the piece, along with preparatory materials that show how he assembled the project.
Marcel Duchamp (1887 - 1968), From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Sélavy (Box in a Valise), 1935-1941 (contents); 1938 (collotype); deluxe edition, Series A, 1943, Brown leather valise with handle containing sixty-nine miniature replicas and printed reproductions and one original, Virgin (No. 2), 1938, hand-colored collotype, 16 x 14 3/4 x 4 1/4 in, Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950, 1950-134-934. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / Association Marcel Duchamp.
The exhibition also includes material connected to Étant donnés, the room-sized installation Duchamp spent years developing in secret. The finished work is permanently installed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, so visitors can see it after moving through the retrospective.
Philadelphia has an especially strong connection to Duchamp. The Philadelphia Museum of Art holds the world’s largest repository of his work and was one of the organizers of the last major U.S. Duchamp survey, held in 1973-74 with the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The two museums partnered again on this retrospective, which was shown at MoMA earlier this year before coming to Philadelphia.
Tickets cost $35 and include museum admission. Museum members can visit the exhibition for free.
Dates: Oct. 10, 2026-Jan. 31, 2027
Location: Philadelphia Museum of Art, Dorrance Galleries and Galleries 281-283
Price: $35, including museum admission; free for members
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