Forensic Analysis
Shearer applied scientific methods to examine Duchamp's objects, revealing hidden craftsmanship.
The researcher whose groundbreaking work revealed that Duchamp's "readymades" were often carefully crafted fakes - transforming our understanding of his entire project.
Updated
4/15/2026
Reading Time
1 min
Shearer applied scientific methods to examine Duchamp's objects, revealing hidden craftsmanship.
Many "found objects" were actually hand-made, deliberately crafted to appear mass-produced.
Her findings forced a complete reconsideration of Duchamp's relationship to craftsmanship and deception.
Born in 1954 in Aurora, Illinois, Rhonda Roland Shearer is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and cultural advocate who built a career bridging art, science, and journalism.
In 1996, Shearer co-founded the Art Science Research Laboratory in New York City with renowned paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The organization operates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to exploring intersections between artistic and scientific inquiry.
This collaboration proved essential: Gould brought evolutionary biology's emphasis on empirical evidence and skepticism toward received narratives, while Shearer contributed deep knowledge of art history and forensic examination techniques.
Shearer founded and edited Tout-Fait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal, a peer-reviewed publication that became a crucial resource for Duchamp scholars worldwide.
Her most influential work on Duchamp includes the two-part essay series "Marcel Duchamp's Impossible Bed and Other 'Not' Readymade Objects", which systematically demonstrates that many of Duchamp's supposedly found objects were carefully crafted to appear mass-produced.
Marcel Duchamp's "Impossible Bed" and Poincaré's influence. Full essay with original illustrations from marcelduchamp.org.
A Possible Route of Influence From Art To Science. Key definitions and concepts extracted from the essay.