Marcel Duchamp saw in 1912 a mélange of egos, money, careers, and overblown or makeshift theories. "Like a basket of crabs," was how he described the scene.

Duchamp consciously chose to step outside of it all and to go his own way. LIke the famous Fountain --which was never displayed at that exhibition-- he absented himself from the sold-out ones before they even knew it, and created a vortex in the wake of his (invisible) departure. He became not only better than an artist, his agile independence guided him around all of society's traps, and he honored his calling and mastered his life. In the meantime, without any conscious intention at all, just by example, he was the eccentric who established a new center in art.