Father of the "readymade," ancestor of conceptual art
The most subversive artist of the twentieth century, who all but single-handedly changed the very question of "what is art." He signed a bought urinal with a false name, sent it to an exhibition, and declared it the artwork Fountain — and from then on, art depended not on "how well the hand paints," but on the artist’s "choice" and "idea." This step shook the whole art world, and gave rise directly to the conceptual and contemporary art that followed.
In 1917 Duchamp bought an ordinary porcelain urinal, signed it "R. Mutt," titled it Fountain, and submitted it to an exhibition. The jury was scandalized and refused to show it. But Duchamp’s question remained: if an artist points to a ready-made thing and says "this is art," is it art? This prank of a question forced the whole of twentieth-century art from "how to paint" toward "what even counts as art."
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.