Fountain (Duchamp)

Fountain is an art work Marcel Duchamp created in 1917.

Related Topics:
Marcel Duchamp - 1917

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It is one of the pieces that he called readymades (now known as found art). With this piece he chose a urinal, named it Fountain, and signed it R. Mutt.

Related Topics:
Found art - Urinal

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One theory suggests R.Mutt may be a play on the German word Armut, meaning poverty.

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Duchamp submitted the piece to the "unjuried" 1917 Society of Independent Artists (of which he was a board member) exhibition, and it was rejected as "not being art." (He resigned from the board shortly after the incident.)

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In defense of the work being art, Beatrice Wood wrote "The only works of art America has given are her plumbing and her bridges."

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In December 2004, Duchamp's Fountain was voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century by 500 of the most powerful people in the British art world. This is testimony to the influence of Duchamp's work, and the mark he has left on the art world. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4059997.stm

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One of the many "Fountains" Duchamp created in his lifetime can be found on display in the Indiana University Art Museum.

Related Topics:
Indiana University - Art Museum

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