marcel duchamps fountain

7/29/2019 Marcel Duchamps Fountain

1/9

Marcel DuchampsFountain

Sarah Shea

HUMN406-01

Professor Nelson


2/9

Marcel DuchampsFountain

People often ask what constitutes good art. Who decides whether or not a piece is

art and whether it is good art or not? Marcel Duchamp challenged popular notions of his

day about what art actually is.

Duchamp, a French artist living in New York at the turn of the century, believed

that it was up to the artist to determine what art is. Duchamp is most

famous for a type of sculpture he created called readymades1.

Readymades are ordinary functional household objects that have either

been joined to other objects, or chosen to stand alone as sculpture.

Examples of his readymades include a coat hanger nailed to the floor of his studio, a hat

rack suspended from the ceiling, a typewrite cover concealing nothing, and a bicycle

wheel attached to a stool. Duchamp often altered the objects in some way, sometimes by

just turning the object on its side, or hanging it anything other than the specific way it

was suppose to be placed in. Marcel Duchamps belief was that because the artist chose

the object to be art, it was, even though the artist did not physically manufacture it.

Marcel Duchamp was born in 1887 to a very artistic French family. Three of his

siblings went on to become successful artists. Duchamp studied art at the Acadmie

Julian, a studio school in Paris for artists with an academic tradition. Shortly after his

time at the school, Duchamp created what would become a well-known piece:Nude

1The term readymade was not actually in existence at the time of his first readymades.

The term didnt come about until after he came to America from France in 1915.

Duchamp himself said of these the following: It was an interesting word, but when I put abicycle wheel on a stool, the fork down, there was no idea of a "readymade," or anything else. It

was just a distraction. I didn't have any special reason to do it, or any intention of showing it, or

describing anything. (From the article by Molly Nesbit entitledHis Common Sense- Marcel

Duchamps in the magazineArt Forum. Oct. 1994)


3/9

Descending a Staircase. The painting depicted a cubist figure in motion. By

superimposing the image of the figure, Duchamp created movement in two dimensions.

This became one of his most famous paintings, and possibly the first one to create

controversy at art shows. Duchamp traveled to New York in 1920.

Having made friends with the likes of artists such as Man Ray,

Beatrice Wood, and Francis Picabia, Duchamp became well known

within the surrealist circle, and even founded the Socit Anonyme.

This society was the one that would later reject Duchamps own entry

into their art show. In 1942 Duchamp permanently settled in New

York, and lived there until his death in 1968.

One of Duchamps most famous, and controversial

readymades is calledFountain.Fountain was first introduced

in April of 1917. Duchamp entered it into an art exhibition

that was being put on by the American Society of Independent

Artists, a group that Duchamp himself was a director of. Duchamp entered the readymade

under the name of Richard Mutt; by using an alias, Duchamp turned the entry into a test

for the society. The main idea of the exhibition was an exhibitionwhere artists of all

schools can exhibit

together-certain that whatever they send will be hungThere are no requirements for

admission to the Society save the acceptance of its principles and the payment of the

initiation fee of one dollar and the annual dues of five dollars2Duchamp sent in his

readymade with the required fees, and according to the rules of the exhibition,Fountain

2Taken fromMarcel Duchamp: Artist of the Century 1990 passage from an

announcement entitled The Society of Independent Artists, Inc.


4/9

was to be accepted. However, because this readymade was originally manufactured to be

a urinal, it was considered, by the society, to be too controversial and inappropriate for

the standards of this time, and they therefore turned it down. Following this action,

Duchamp sent in his resignation to the society. There was much ado over these

happenings. Articles appeared in major newspapers regarding it, but still no one knew

who Richard Mutt was. An article also appeared in The Blind Man, an art journal

Duchamp himself published. The anonymous author of the article defended theFountain

as art and went on to say The only works of art America has given are her plumbing and

her bridges."3

This was the early 1900s, so at this time the idea of modern art was still fairly

new. People were starting to get use to it, but were not comfortable enough to be

introduced to something such asFountain. A bathroom fixture, especially a urinal, was

considered too inappropriate, and was even said to be immoral. In that same article in The

Blind Man, the author defendsFountain on this matter by saying, Now Mr. Mutt's

fountain is not immoral, that is absurd, no more than a bath tub is immoral. It is a fixture

that you see every day in plumbers' show windows. This is a very true statement; after

all, bathtubs are not considered immoral are they? However, it being a urinal, and

because of its reference to unpleasant bodily functions, it may seem inappropriate to have

to study and examine it for any period of time, like art is suppose to be studied. This is

certainly valid reasoning. Perhaps, however, because the urinal was flipped onto its back,

and called Fountain rather than Urinal, it is divorced from the whole bathroom scene,

3Marcel Duchamp himself most likely wrote this article, however, a dear friend of his,

Beatrice Wood, might have written it as well. This detail, like most regardingFountain,

is not for sure because everything about its existence was very secretive.


5/9

and this therefore makes it more appropriate. As always, with art, its all a matter of

opinion.

About two weeks after his resignation from the society, Duchamp had Alfred

Steiglitz photographFountain. With the special attention he paid to the lighting of the

urinal, Duchamp tried to equate his art with artwork of both the Virgin Mary, and

Buddha. The shadows cast on the urinal gave the illusion of a veil on it, much like the

Virgin would wear. Also, all three images have the same general outline shape.4

These photographs depict the similarities. This action wasnt so much an effort on

Duchamps part to explain his reasoning behindFountain, or to prove that it was art. It

was more of an opportunity to maybe take the art aspect of the object, and personify it

to further create new levels to its artistic-ness. Marcel never felt the need to make people

understand his motives.

Because of who Marcel Duchamp was, and because his art seems to appearso

meaningless that it must have some abstract meaning, there is vast amounts of

speculation regarding the symbolism ofFountain. A very interesting set of ideas is that it

is viewed as a highly sexual piece.

5

Because of its position, shape, and original

4This information can be found in the bookMarcel Duchamp: Artist of the Century

1990 Chapter ---- has more thoughts and information on this action taken by Duchamp.5An example of this speculation: By displaying this utensil upside downinverting it

Duchamp slyly enhanced the uncertainty of the objects gender, intimating its androgyny.

Camfield described the Fountain as a receptacle for the male "jet" turned upside-down and made


6/9

relationship to the male body (as a urinal), it nearly suggests female genitalia. There are

also some that regard it as a bi-sexual piece because of its male and female qualities

mentioned previously.Yet there are still others that see it as a homosexual piece. This is

because as a urinal, it belongs in an all male environment, and, at this time in history, it

was not uncommon for males to meet in restrooms to participate in sexual activities

together. Of course, these are all just speculations, it is not known to anyone if there are

any hidden meanings at all behindFountain.

The originalFountain, like the majority of Duchamps readymades, has long

since been destroyed. There have been many replicas in its place for exhibitions, and

even though they are not the original, they convey the same ideas that the original did. An

artist does not need to create a piece himself to have it be considered art. Its specific

feature lies not in the work itself, but in the idea behind it. Emphasis is placed upon the

artist not as craftsman, but as gifted perceiver whose choice of an object is seen as a

creative act. The readymade thus becomes the focus of a meditation on the relation

between external things and our perception of them.6 This is just one definition of art;

perhaps though, art doesnt need a definition, perhaps it just needs an opinion.

female, a vagina potentially containing its own fluids. This inversion that accentuates the

feminine lines of a utensil intended for males, provides one more example of the theme of

androgyny so often noted in Duchamps work. Excerpt from article by Jack Spector inTout-Fait, an online journal of Marcel Duchamp studies.6

From article on website The Fine Sitehttp://www.finesite.webart.ru/shocking/fountain-1.htm

Author unknown


7/9


8/9

Works Cited

Art Journals:Tout-Fait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal

Duchamps Gendered Plumbing: A Family Business? By Jack Spector

http://www.marcelduchamp.net/article_spector/spector.htm

ArtForum, Oct. 1994

His Common Sense, Marcel Duchamps By Molly Nesbit

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is_n2_v33/ai_16315398

Art Journal, winter 1998

Work Avoidance: The Everyday Life of Marcel Duchamps Readymades

By Helen Molesworth

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0425/is_4_57/ai_53747210

Internet sources:Fountain http://arthist.binghamton.edu/duchamp/fountain.html

Wikipedia Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp

The Fine Site http://www.finesite.webart.ru/shocking/fountain-1.htm

Book Sources:Marcel Duchamp: Artist of the Century 1990 MIT Press

Edited By Rudolf E. Kuenzli and Francis M. Naumann


9/9

The Duchamp Effect1996 MIT Press

Edited By Martha Buskirk and Mignon Nixon

Marcel Duchamp Work and Life 1993 MIT Press

Edited and introduced by Pontus Hulten. Texts by Jennifer Gough-Cooper

and Jacques Caumont

marcel duchamps fountain

Documents