Fountain (Duchamp)
In April 1917, an ordinary piece of plumbing chosen by Duchamp was submitted for the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, to be staged at the Grand Central Palace in New York.
When explaining the purpose of his readymade sculpture, Duchamp stated they are "everyday objects raised to the dignity of a work of art by the artist's act of choice.
[13][14][15] In early 1917, rumors spread that Duchamp was working on a Cubist painting titled Tulip Hysteria Co-ordinating, in preparation for the largest exhibition of modern art ever to take place in the United States.
[6][18] According to one version, the creation of Fountain began when, accompanied by artist Joseph Stella and art collector Walter Arensberg, Duchamp purchased a standard Bedfordshire model urinal from the J. L. Mott Iron Works, 118 Fifth Avenue.
The artist brought the urinal to his studio at 33 West 67th Street, reoriented it 90 degrees[3][4] from its originally intended position of use,[21][5][22] and wrote on it, "R. Mutt 1917".
(Marcel Duchamp, 1971)[29]The New York Dadaists stirred controversy about Fountain and its being rejected in the second issue of The Blind Man which included a photo of the piece and a letter by Alfred Stieglitz, and writings by Louise Norton, Beatrice Wood and Arensberg.
He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object.
[19] R. Mutt responded, according to Apollinaire, that the work was not immoral since similar pieces could be seen every day exposed in plumbing and bath supply stores.
[19][32] Menno Hubregtse argues that Duchamp may have chosen Fountain as a readymade because it parodied Robert J. Coady's exaltation of industrial machines as pure forms of American art.
[33] Coady, who championed his call for American art in his publication The Soil, printed a scathing review of Jean Crotti's Portrait of Marcel Duchamp (Sculpture Made to Measure) in the December 1916 issue.
Hubregtse notes that Duchamp's urinal may have been a clever response to Coady's comparison of Crotti's sculpture with "the absolute expression of a—plumber.
"[34] Some have contested that Duchamp created Fountain, but rather assisted in submitting the piece to the Society of Independent Artists for a female friend.
In a letter dated 11 April 1917 Duchamp wrote to his sister Suzanne: "Une de mes amies sous un pseudonyme masculin, Richard Mutt, avait envoyé une pissotière en porcelaine comme sculpture" ("One of my female friends under a masculine pseudonym, Richard Mutt, sent in a porcelain urinal as a sculpture.
[3] Duchamp's female alter ego has been discredited as the inception of Rrose Sélavy occurred in the 1920s, years after the initial exhibition.
[3] However, despite a lack of documentary evidence, it has been proven[43] that von Freytag had been experimenting with the concept of bodily fluids as high art in her practice, even collaborating with photographer Morton Livingston Schamberg on the piece, God (1917),[44] which maintains a similar message and aesthetic to that of Fountain.
[45] Further arguments against Duchamp as author have included that the R. Mutt, signature makes more sense as a German pun on armut (poverty) or mutter (mother), taking into consideration the geo-political climate at the time and the tension between Germany and the US.
Some of the directors wanted it to remain, in view of the society's ruling of 'no jury' to decide on the merits of the 2500 paintings and sculptures submitted.
[55] The first 1:1 reproduction of Fountain was authorized by Duchamp in 1950 for an exhibition in New York; two more individual pieces followed in 1953 and 1963, and then an artist's multiple was manufactured in an edition of eight in 1964.
][59] Similarly, philosopher Stephen Hicks[60] argued that Duchamp, who was quite familiar with the history of European art, was obviously making a provocative statement with Fountain: The artist is a not great creator—Duchamp went shopping at a plumbing store.
He goes onto say: In placing the urinal horizontally it appears more passive, and feminine, while remaining a receptacle designed for the functioning of the male penis.
[63] Duchamp said the R stood for Richard, French slang for "moneybags", which according to one critic makes Fountain "a kind of scatological golden calf".
The choice of a urinal, according to Duchamp, "sprang from the idea of making an experiment concerned with taste: choose the object which has the least chance of being liked.
Dalia Judovitz writes: Structured as an emblem, the visual and linguistic elements set up a punning interplay that helps us to explore further the mechanisms that Fountain actively stages.
[10][40] In December 2004, Duchamp's Fountain was voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century by 500 selected British art world professionals.
It is a manifestation of the Kantian sublime: A work of art that transcends a form but that is also intelligible, an object that strikes down an idea while allowing it to spring up stronger.
South African born artist Kendell Geers rose to international notoriety in 1993 when, at a show in Venice, he urinated into Fountain.
He admitted that it was only a technical triumph because he needed to urinate in a tube in advance so he could convey the fluid through a gap between the protective glass.
The Tate, which denied that the duo had succeeded in urinating into the sculpture itself,[72] banned them from the premises stating that they were threatening "works of art and our staff."
[78] Adding to Duchamp's audacious move, Levine turns his gesture back into an "art object" by elevating its materiality and finish.
[88] In 1961, Duchamp wrote a letter to fellow Dadaist Hans Richter in which he supposedly said: This Neo-Dada, which they call New Realism, Pop Art, Assemblage, etc., is an easy way out, and lives on what Dada did.
