Fountain (Duchamp)

Fountain (Duchamp)
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Artist	Marcel Duchamp
Year	1917
Medium	Readymade: porcelain urinal
Dimensions	36 cm × 48 cm × 61 cm (14 in × 19 in × 24 in)
City	Various replicas exist; original lost.
Museum	Philadelphia Museum of Art (replica)

Fountain (Duchamp) is a seminal 1917 artwork by the French-American artist Marcel Duchamp. It consists of a standard, mass-produced porcelain urinal, presented on its back and signed "R. Mutt 1917". Submitted anonymously to the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists in New York City, the piece was rejected by the committee, sparking immediate controversy. As a foundational example of the readymade, Fountain fundamentally challenged prevailing definitions of art, the role of the artist, and the authority of artistic institutions, profoundly influencing the development of 20th-century art movements like Dada, conceptual art, and minimalism.

Description and creation

The original Fountain was a standard, commercially available Bedfordshire model urinal, manufactured by the J. L. Mott Iron Works. Duchamp purchased the fixture from a New York City supplier, likely Mott Works or a related plumbing supply company. He reoriented the object 90 degrees from its functional position, placed it on a pedestal, and inscribed it with the pseudonym "R. Mutt" and the date. This act of selection, re-contextualization, and signing constituted the entire creative process, embodying Duchamp's concept of the readymade. The physical original was lost shortly after the 1917 exhibition, but its legacy was secured through a photograph taken by Duchamp's friend and collaborator, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, at his 291 gallery. This image, published in the second issue of the Dada journal The Blind Man, became the primary document of the work.

Significance and interpretation

Fountain is a cornerstone of modern art theory, radically questioning the aesthetic and philosophical foundations of artistic creation. Duchamp argued that the artist's intellectual choice was more important than traditional craft or skill, shifting the locus of art from the hand to the mind. The work challenged the aesthetics of beauty and taste upheld by institutions like the Académie des Beaux-Arts and commercial art galleries. Interpretations of the piece are multifaceted: it is seen as a critique of the art market, a nihilistic gesture aligned with the anti-art sentiments of the Dada movement in Zurich and New York, and a profound philosophical inquiry into the nature of art itself. The pseudonym "R. Mutt" has been variously interpreted as a pun on the Mott company and the comic strip Mutt and Jeff, or as a reference to the German word "Armut" (poverty).

Provenance and exhibition history

After its rejection from the Society of Independent Artists exhibition, the original Fountain disappeared, likely discarded. The work existed primarily through Stieglitz's photograph and contemporary accounts in publications like The Blind Man. Duchamp authorized several replicas later in his life to meet museum demand. The first edition of eight replicas was produced in 1964 under Duchamp's supervision by the Galleria Schwarz in Milan. These are now held in major institutions worldwide, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Tate Modern in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. These replicas have been featured in landmark exhibitions such as the 2005 Dada show at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and the 2008 exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Legacy and influence

The legacy of Fountain is immense, establishing Duchamp as a pivotal figure for post-World War II art movements. It directly prefigured the rise of conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s, influencing artists like Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol. Its questioning of authorship and the art object resonated with minimalism and institutional critique, as seen in the work of Sol LeWitt and Michael Asher. In 2004, a poll of 500 art professionals conducted by BBC's The Culture Show named Fountain the most influential artwork of the 20th century, surpassing Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. Its conceptual framework underpins much of contemporary art practice, from the Fluxus movement to the Young British Artists like Damien Hirst.

Reception and controversy

The initial reception was one of scandal and rejection. The board of the Society of Independent Artists, despite its "no jury" policy, debated the piece intensely before hiding it from view during the exhibition. This act generated immediate debate in the New York art world, defended in essays by Duchamp (under a pseudonym) and his supporter Louise Norton in The Blind Man. For decades, the art establishment largely dismissed it, but by the mid-20th century, it was canonized as a masterwork of avant-garde provocation. Controversy resurfaced in 1993 when a replica was defaced by the artist Pierre Pinoncelli during an exhibition in Nîmes, an act he repeated in 2006 at the Centre Pompidou. The work continues to provoke public and critical debate over the boundaries of art, most recently in discussions surrounding the Turner Prize and the activities of Banksy.

Category:1917 sculptures Category:Readymade sculptures Category:Dada Category:Artworks by Marcel Duchamp Category:20th-century sculpture