The Infamous urinal.
In 1917 the ubiquitous urinal was raised on a pedestal and given the status of a work of art.
The porcelain urinal presented by Duchamp is regarded by art historians and thier Avante garde ilk as a defining and defying landmark that changed 20th century art. The work also is sexually suggestive, in placing the urinal horizontal it appears more passive, feminine while remaining a receptacle designed for the functioning of the make penis.
Duchamp took a standard urinal and turned it on its side, dated and signed it as R , Mutt 1917 and called it the “fountain”.
He was already a familiar name during the Dada movement and was a member of the newly established ‘ Society of Independent artists which he himself had helped found. Duchamp through a woman friend submitted the porcelain piece under the pseudonym R. Mutts ( from Mott works, the name of a large sanitary equipment manufacturer ). The ‘Society of Independent artists’ had agreed that they would accept whatever is submitted by an artist for the exhibit fee. The committee however found the innocuous plumbing piece was indecent and was voted to be excluded from the show. Duchamp immediately resigned from the committee in protest.
In its wake, the rejection of the fountain ( from the exhibit area ) created a stir in the NY art circles. The rejected art piece now reproduced with a photograph by Alfred Stieglitz was featured in the second issue of ‘The Blind man’. A Dada journal that Duchamp edited with fellow surrealists Henri Pierre Roche and Beatrice wood.
It lists the reason for rejection of the immoral, vulgar and plain piece of plumbing. Contending it ” Mr Mutts fountain is not immoral, that is absurd no more than a bath tub is immoral. You see that everyday in a plumbers showroom. Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not, has no importance. He chose it, he took an ordinary article of life, placed it, so it’s useful significance disappeared and under the new title and point of view created a new thought of the object.
Duchamp took a very skeptic attitude towards modern art and not that it was intended it that way nonetheless it was a new take on machine aesthetics.
The ‘fountain’ is plain yet the idea is beautiful. Duchamp defined the readymade as ” everyday objects raised to the dignity of a work of art by the artists act of choice “.
Indeed ( & not surprised ) one of the replicas was peed on at the Tate modern in 2000 by artist Cai Yuan and Juan Jun Xii though it was ironically protected by an enclosed vitrine. The urinal elevated to a piece of art had lost its utility.