Great Works of Art: Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’

To my mind, there are few works of art that have had such a distinct and emphatic influence on the course of art than Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, made in 1917. Fountain is a porcelain urinal. There is little else to say about it. It’s a urinal. Except that, in April 1917, Duchamp had the temerity to submit it to the exhibition of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_Independent_Artists" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Society of Independent Artists</a> as a work of art. Fountain is a so-called ‘readymade’ sculpture, meaning that it is an ordinary, manufactured object that the artist has simply selected and perhaps modified in some way. Duchamp made very little modifications to the object, except turn it on its side and sign it with a pseudonym ‘R. Mutt’. Many words have been expended on this strange artwork, as if its very presence in our cultural landscape needs more justification than any other work of art. Perhaps it does. The very contentiousness of Fountain means it has survived its historical moment and continues to impress upon us its combative punch, not to mention inspiring the interests and practices of several generations of later artists. That contemporary art is not universally loved bears heavily on Fountain, since whatever else Duchamp was trying to achieve (or mischieve), he certainly meant to create something disagreeable. Contemporary art endures many of its sharpest criticisms because of Duchamp’s daring and provocative example. <a href="https://christopherpjones.medium.com/great-works-of-art-duchamps-fountain-900a4acb4307">Visit Now</a>