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Ankana Haldar Patrick Lewis ARTS-1301-P08 9 September 2013 Marcel Duchamps Fountain Marcel Duchamp is known as one of the

most influencial artists in modern times because he had the courage to do something that no one else was capable of. The way he observed the art was completely new and his innovation and alternative source of expression was reflected through his work. Fountain is one of the Duchamps famous work was created in 1917. It has always been a very controversial work. The original, which is now lost, consisted of a standard a urinal set on its back, signed 'R. Mutt 1917' was presented in an exhibition organised by the Society of Independent Artists. Surprisingly the shows committee refused to exhibit the item as a sculpture. Duchamp, who was on the Board, resigned immediately in protest. An article published at the time, claimed, Mr Mutt's fountain is not immoral, that is absurd, no more than a bathtub is immoral. It is a fixture that you see every day in plumbers' shop windows (qtd Tomkins 39). Duchamp Fountain became the most controversial readymades for obvious reasons. He displayed an everyday object with little altercation as a piece of artwork. Duchamp knew this work would create controversies when he made it. The interesting part of his work is that he didnt write his own name on it. He wanted to drag the limitation of art, and wanted people to question what the qualifications of art were. Duchamps personal motivation was to show anything could be art. His intention was to break the conventional conception about art. The power of the readymades forced audiences to understand that an art did not have to be a

masterpiece that took a lot of hard work and talent to create. It could be anything. He wanted to see the reactions of people by choosing such a piece and reproducing it with his other works. It was 1938 when Duchamp first made miniature replicas of urinals to put in his Box, a collection of miniatures of all his work to that point It appears that this was perhaps also the first point at which Duchamp publicly took credit for the Fountain. In 1945 it was eventually decided that the Fountain to be considered an example of Anti-Art and it was an historical relic of the artistic course of the 20th century (Camfield 69). In the last few decades Duchamps artistic practice has served as one of the main reference points for contemporary art or, contemporary Western art. His motivation reproducing the ready-made was to reveal mechanism of production of something new, not only in art, but also in culture in general. He wanted to show that the objects cultural valorization was a process that differed from its artistic transformation. The ready-made is the symbol of freedom of invoation of an artist, who can use anything to create an artistic context and thus valorize it. Duchamp emphasized on qualifications and perspective of the art instead of the application of traditional criteria of quality, beauty or expressivity an artist can enjoy the freedom of creativity.

Work Cited Camfield, William A. Marcel Duchamp: Fountain. HoustonThe Menil CollectionHouston Fine Art Press, 1989. Print. Duve, Thierry d and Krauss, Rosalind. Marcel Duchamp, or The "Phynancier" of Modern Life: Thierry de Duve and Rosalind Krauss. Octobe 52 (1990): 60-75. JSTOR.Web.07 Sept. 2013. Tomkins,Calvin. Duchamp: A Biography. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1996. Print.

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