Fountain (Duchamp)

Fountain (Duchamp)
Marcel Duchamp / Alfred Stieglitz · Public domain · source
Title	Fountain
Artist	Marcel Duchamp
Year	1917
Medium	Glazed sanitary china and enamel
Dimensions	Approximately 24 x 19 x 15 in (varies by version)
Location	Various collections (original lost; replicas in museums)

Fountain (Duchamp) is a seminal ready-made sculpture originally submitted in 1917 by Marcel Duchamp under a pseudonym. The work—an upended porcelain urinal signed "R. Mutt"—became a flashpoint in debates over authorship, aesthetics, and institutional authority in modern and contemporary art.

Background and Creation

Duchamp, associated with Cubism, Dada, New York Dada, and interactions with figures from Paris and New York City, developed the ready-made concept amid exchanges with artists and critics such as Man Ray, Francis Picabia, Walter Arensberg, Alfred Stieglitz, and Joseph Stella. Influenced by reactions to Post-Impressionism and debates around Fauvism, he sought to challenge conventions upheld by establishments like the Society of Independent Artists, Armory Show, and galleries in Montparnasse. Duchamp's prior works, including Bicycle Wheel, Bottle Rack, and the L.H.O.O.Q. postcard, framed his interrogation of authorship, selection, and everyday objects. The object chosen for Fountain was a mass-produced sanitary fixture manufactured in the United States, forming a counterpoint to hand-crafted sculpture traditions exemplified by Auguste Rodin, Aristide Maillol, and Camille Claudel.

Submission to the 1917 Society of Independent Artists Exhibition

In April 1917 the Society of Independent Artists organized an exhibition in New York modeled on ideals similar to those of the Salon des Indépendants in Paris. Duchamp submitted Fountain under the name "R. Mutt" via intermediaries such as Joseph Stella and Alfred Stieglitz to the exhibition committee that included members of the Arensberg Circle, Walter Pach, John Sloan, and trustees with ties to institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and patrons linked to Alfred Stieglitz's circle. The society's purported policy of acceptance for all submissions echoed the model of Independent Group practices later seen in British Pop art, yet Fountain was rejected or excluded by committee decision, provoking correspondence and manifestos among artists networked with Peggy Guggenheim, Paul Rosenberg, and dealers in SoHo precursors.

Reception, Controversy, and Critical Response

Contemporary press and critics including writers at The Sun (New York), The New York Times, and art commentators connected to Harper's Bazaar and The Dial debated Fountain in relation to debates around modernism movements such as Futurism, Constructivism, Surrealism, and Symbolism. Opponents invoked sculptural precedents embodied in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Walters Art Museum, and European institutions like the Tate Modern and the Musée du Louvre to argue against its inclusion. Advocates—artists and intellectuals associated with John Cage, Barnett Newman, Andy Warhol, Philip Johnson, and curators at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection—later framed Fountain as pivotal. Public controversy extended into legal and moral arenas discussed by figures aligned with The Society of Independent Artists leadership and cultural commentators linked to The Saturday Evening Post and Vanity Fair.

Authorship, Provenance, and Multiple Versions

Questions about authorship involved Duchamp, possible assistants, and intermediaries such as Man Ray, Walter Arensberg, Joseph Stella, and staff at plumbing suppliers in New York City; Duchamp corresponded with Elizabeth Peyton-era scholars later, and his letters engaged critics like Richard Hamilton and historians connected to Kenneth Clark's circles. The original 1917 object is lost; Duchamp authorized replicas in later decades produced by makers including Alfred Stieglitz's contemporaries and craft firms to museum specifications. Institutions now holding versions include the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Israel Museum, and private collections associated with patrons like Peggy Guggenheim and families tied to Solomon R. Guggenheim. Provenance records, catalogues raisonnés, and exhibition histories have been documented by scholars linked to T. J. Clark, Rosalind E. Krauss, Thierry de Duve, William Rubin, and curators from the Art Institute of Chicago.

Artistic Significance and Influence

Fountain is frequently cited in scholarship connecting Duchampian strategies to later movements including Conceptual art, Minimalism, Fluxus, Neo-Dada, Pop Art, Postmodernism, and practices of Appropriation art associated with artists such as Marcel Broodthaers, Joseph Kosuth, Yves Klein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, John Baldessari, Dan Flavin, Sol LeWitt, Lawrence Weiner, Bruce Nauman, Rachel Whiteread, and Tracey Emin. The work's recontextualization of readymades influenced curators and theorists active at institutions like the Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim, and university programs at Columbia University and Yale University. Debates about aesthetic judgment invoked philosophers and critics such as Arthur Danto, Clement Greenberg, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Susan Sontag, and historians associated with Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock.

Legal, Ethical, and Museum Acquisition Issues

Legal and ethical questions around Fountain touch on intellectual property, authenticity, and museum acquisition policies involving entities like the Museum of Modern Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Tate, and national cultural property statutes in countries such as France, United Kingdom, and the United States. Debates have involved conservators and legal scholars at institutions including ICOM, university law schools at Harvard University, Yale Law School, and institutions advising on provenance like the Getty Research Institute. Contemporary controversies regarding replicas, exhibition loans, deaccessioning, and display ethics draw on precedents from major disputes involving works by Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp (more broadly), Kazimir Malevich, and Henri Matisse, and are discussed in journals connected to the College Art Association and museum codes set by AAM standards.

Category:Works by Marcel Duchamp