Found art

The term, found art, or more commonly, found object (French: objet trouvé) describes art created from common objects that are not normally considered art.

Related Topics:
French - Art

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Found art derives significance from the context into which it is placed, thus blurring the traditional distinction of what is art, and what is not art, and challenges the nature of art.

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Marcel Duchamp coined the term readymade in 1915 to describe his found art. His Fountain, a urinal which he signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt", shocked the art world in 1917. The piece was rejected when he submitted it to the unjuried 1917 Society of Independent Artists. Bottle Rack is a bottle drying rack signed by Duchamp. (Research by art historian Rhonda Roland Shearer indicates that Duchamp may have fabricated his found objects. Exhaustive research of mundane items like snow shovels and bottle racks in use at the time failed to reveal identical matches. The urinal, upon close inspection, is non-functional. However, there are accounts of Walter Arensberg and Joseph Stella being with Duchamp when he purchased the original Fountain at J. L. Mott Iron Works.)

Related Topics:
Marcel Duchamp - Fountain - Society of Independent Artists - Bottle - Rack - Rhonda Roland Shearer - Walter Arensberg - Joseph Stella

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Pablo Picasso used found objects as the basis for Baboon and Young.

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Found Magazine, based in Ann Arbor, MI, collects and catalogs found notes, photos, and other interesting items. Music composers use found sound in their compositions. Examples include John Cage, Nicolas Collins, and The Books. Poets, too, create art out of non-literary writing. Cordelia McGuire turned a funeral home classified advertisement into a poem entitled Embalmer by adding line breaks. Found art features in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amelie.

Related Topics:
Found Magazine - Ann Arbor - John Cage - Nicolas Collins - The Books - Cordelia McGuire - Jean-Pierre Jeunet - Amelie

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