11. The Society of Independent Artists’ salon
in New York claimed that they would
accept any work of art, as long as the
artist paid the application fee.
So Duchamp presented an upside-down
urinal signed and dated with the
appellation “R. Mutt, 1917,” and titled
Fountain.
The Society’s board thought that it was a
joke from an anonymous artist and
rejected Fountain saying that it was not
a true work of art. Duchamp, who was a
member of that board himself, resigned
in protest.
How Duchamp’s Urinal Changed Art Forever
12. This female friend was
Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven,
a German Dada artist and poet
Evidence suggests that the Fountain was actually created
by Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven.
Duchamp wrote a letter to his sister,
Susanne:
“One of my female friends who had
adopted the masculine pseudonym
Richard Mutt sent me a porcelain
urinal as a sculpture.”
13. Found object art originates from objects or
products that are not normally considered
materials from which art is made, often because
they already have a non-art function.