My favorite painting showed up amidst a fascinating package on human creativity in the Oct. 29 New Scientist (sub. req.)

Historian and philosopher of science Arthur Miller says this:

Marcel Duchamp had read some works on relativity and the influence is obvious in his Nude Descending a Staircase.

I want to believe this. I’m not sure I do, but I want to. It’s such a terrific painting on so many levels, not the least of which is comic. So another level of meaning is unnecessary. But it’s a fun possibility.