8. Duchamp – Fountain 1917
Fountain is a 1917 work created by Marcel Duchamp. The piece was a porcelain urinal, which was signed “R.Mutt” and titled Fountain. The appropriated work was submitted for the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists, in 1917, the 1st Annual exhibition by the Society to be staged at The Grand Central Palace in New York. But the work was unceremoniously rejected by the committee, even though the rules stated that all works would be accepted from artists who paid the fee. The New York Dadaists stirred controversy about the work being rejected in the second issue of ‘The Blind Man’. The anonymous editorial accompanying the photograph, entitled “The Richard Mutt Case,” stated: “Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object. The only works of art America has given are her plumbing and her bridges.” Duchamp described his intent with the piece was to shift the focus of art from physical craft to intellectual interpretation.