What is Art? Marcel Duchamp: Great Art Explained

Summary

The script explores the revolutionary impact of Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain' on art, challenging traditional notions of beauty and artistry. It delves into Duchamp's background, his move towards conceptual art, and the evolution of the 'readymade' concept. The narrative also touches on the broader implications for the definition of art, Duchamp's playful approach to challenging the art world, and his enduring influence on contemporary artists.

Takeaways

• 🖼️ Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain', a mass-produced urinal, is considered one of the most revolutionary and contentious works in art history, challenging traditional notions of art.
• 🎨 Duchamp's work reflects a shift from traditional artistic styles to more conceptual and idea-driven approaches, influencing the development of modern art.
• 🤔 Duchamp's 'readymades', like 'Bicycle Wheel' and 'Bottle Rack', questioned the definition of art and the role of the artist, emphasizing the importance of ideas over physical creation.
• 🧩 Duchamp's exploration of chance and the element of randomness in art was influenced by scientific and mathematical theories, particularly those of Henri Poincaré.
• 🔍 The concept of 'readymades' defied the idea that art must be beautiful, instead focusing on the functional and everyday, removing the object's practical function to imbue it with new meaning.
• 🌐 Duchamp's influence extended beyond his own work, affecting the broader art world's understanding and definition of what constitutes art.
• 🏆 Despite the controversy and debate, Duchamp's 'Fountain' was never exhibited publicly during the 1917 exhibition due to the committee's decision, highlighting the tension between traditional and avant-garde art.
• 🔮 Duchamp's later work, including replicas of his 'readymades', continued to challenge the art world's notions of originality, authorship, and the value of art.
• 👥 The debate over the authorship of 'Fountain', with speculation about a possible female creator, adds another layer to the discussion of Duchamp's work and its impact on art history.
• ♟️ Duchamp's interest in chess paralleled his artistic pursuits, suggesting a connection between the strategic, conceptual nature of the game and the creation of art.

Q & A

What was Marcel Duchamp's groundbreaking artwork in 1917?

In 1917, Marcel Duchamp's groundbreaking artwork was 'Fountain,' a mass-produced porcelain urinal that he laid on its side, signed, and submitted to an exhibition, challenging traditional notions of art.

How did Duchamp's 'Fountain' influence the perception of art?

'Fountain' cast a long shadow over the 20th and 21st centuries by redefining what could be considered art, sparking debates on the role of ideas over traditional artistic techniques, and influencing the conceptual art movement.

What was Duchamp's stance on being part of an artistic group?

Duchamp disliked being part of a group and believed in making a 'personal' contribution to art, which could only be achieved by thinking independently and not following the general rules of the group.

How did Duchamp's encounter with airplane propellers at the Paris Aviation salon in 1912 influence his artistic direction?

Duchamp's encounter with airplane propellers led him to question the traditional methods of art creation, as he declared 'Painting is washed up' and started exploring the possibility of inventing an entirely new way of being an artist.

What was Duchamp's approach to art after studying the works of Henri Poincaré?

After studying Henri Poincaré's works, Duchamp began experimenting with combining art and scientific concepts, adopting a more cerebral approach and engaging with ideas of probability and chance in his art.

What is the significance of Duchamp's 'readymade' concept in art history?

The 'readymade' concept, where Duchamp used manufactured found objects as art, defied the notion that art must be beautiful and was a significant contribution to the artistic debate, challenging the definition and creation of art.

Why did Duchamp abandon art in 1913 and what did he do instead?

In 1913, Duchamp abandoned art to work as a librarian, a period during which he engaged in serious reading, studying mathematics and physics, which later influenced his approach to art.

How did Duchamp's 'Bicycle Wheel' challenge the traditional views on art?

Duchamp's 'Bicycle Wheel' challenged traditional views on art by presenting a functional everyday item without any artistic modification, emphasizing the concept of chance and the idea that art could be anything the artist intended it to be.

What was the role of humor and irony in Duchamp's approach to art?

Humor and irony played a significant role in Duchamp's approach to art, as he used them to challenge the art world's conventions and provoke thought, often employing them in his works and public persona.

Why did Duchamp submit 'Fountain' under the pseudonym Richard Mutt?

Duchamp submitted 'Fountain' under the pseudonym Richard Mutt to provoke and test the American Society of Independent Artists, who claimed to champion new and progressive art without the use of committees or juries.

How did Duchamp's involvement with chess reflect his artistic philosophy?

Duchamp's involvement with chess reflected his artistic philosophy by viewing the game as a form of artistic creation, appreciating its conceptual nature, and finding common points between the strategic thinking in chess and artistic design.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Duchamp's Revolutionary 'Fountain'

Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain,' a mass-produced urinal turned on its side and signed, is considered one of the most revolutionary works in art history. Created in 1917, it sparked debate on the definition of art, with some viewing Duchamp as a conceptual pioneer and others as a charlatan. Born in 1887, Duchamp came from a cultured family where four of his siblings also became artists. His early work showed post-Impressionist influences, and he moved to Paris during the emergence of Fauvism and Cubism. Duchamp's work began to reflect these styles, but his relationship with Cubism was complex. After his painting was rejected by the Cubists for being 'too futurist,' he distanced himself from artistic groups, valuing individual thought over collective norms.

05:06

🛠️ The Birth of the Readymade

Duchamp's encounter with airplane propellers at the Paris Aviation salon led him to question the future of painting and consider new artistic approaches. He abandoned art in 1913 to work as a librarian, where he studied mathematics and physics, particularly the works of Henri Poincaré. Duchamp's interest in probability and chance influenced his creation of the 'readymade,' art made from found objects. His first readymade, 'Bicycle Wheel,' was created not as art but as an exploration of motion. Duchamp's readymades challenged the notion of art as beautiful, instead emphasizing ideas and concepts. Despite their initial obscurity, Duchamp's readymades later influenced the Dada movement and expanded the definition of art.

10:06

🔍 The Evolution of Art's Definition

The concept of art has evolved significantly, from the 12th-century view of skill and practice to the Renaissance's focus on individual intellectual pursuit. Charles Batteux in the 18th century defined art as beautiful things that please and require genius. By the 19th century, with the advent of photography, art moved towards abstraction, and the definition of art began to shift beyond beauty. Duchamp's readymades, such as the 'Bicycle Wheel,' were part of this shift, challenging traditional views. The 20th century saw further evolution, with George Dickie proposing that art institutions or self-proclaimed artists could define art. Duchamp's work contributed to this debate, emphasizing selection, function removal, and presentation as creative acts.

15:10

🗽 Duchamp's Provocative 'Fountain'

In 1917, Duchamp submitted 'Fountain' under the pseudonym Richard Mutt to the American Society of Independent Artists exhibition, intending to provoke and test the group's commitment to new and progressive art. The committee, bound by their own rules, had to accept it but kept it hidden, reflecting the art world's contradictions. Although the original 'Fountain' was discarded, its impact was profound, sparking discussions and influencing future art. Replicas of Duchamp's readymades, produced later, challenged ideas of authorship and originality, preserving certain qualities of the originals while becoming stand-ins themselves.

20:14

👥 The Mystery of Duchamp's 'Female Friend'

Duchamp's letter to his sister in 1917 hinted at a 'female friend' involved in the submission of 'Fountain,' sparking theories about the work's authorship. While some suggest Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, a Dadaist artist, there is no concrete evidence linking her to the piece. More likely candidates are Louise Norton and Beatrice Wood, both part of the New York avant-garde scene and close to Duchamp. Norton is believed to have submitted the piece on Duchamp's behalf, while Wood defended 'Fountain' in her writing. Duchamp maintained responsibility for the work until his death, and the identity of the 'female friend' remains a mystery, adding to the intrigue of Duchamp's legacy.

25:24

♟️ Duchamp's Enduring Legacy

Duchamp's influence extended beyond his readymades and 'Fountain.' He connected chess and art, seeing both as forms of design and strategy. Despite announcing his 'retirement' from art for chess, Duchamp continued creating, including a suitcase museum and films. His 1963 retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum significantly impacted future artists. After his death, it was revealed he had been secretly working on 'Étant Donnés,' an installation accessible only through a peephole. Duchamp believed that both the artist and the viewer contribute to a work's creation, challenging us to consider what art truly is.

Keywords

💡Conceptualism

Conceptualism is an art movement that prioritizes the idea or concept behind the work over traditional aesthetic and technical considerations. In the video, Marcel Duchamp is considered by some as the father of conceptualism, suggesting that his work 'The Fountain' exemplifies the shift towards art that is more about the idea it conveys than its physical form. Duchamp's approach to art challenges viewers to reconsider what constitutes art, as seen in his use of found objects and his focus on the intellectual and philosophical aspects of creation.

💡Readymades

Readymades refer to works of art that are manufactured or found objects selected and modified by the artist, often with little or no change to their original form. Duchamp's use of readymades, such as 'The Fountain' and 'Bicycle Wheel', is a central theme in the video. These works challenge the conventional notion of art as something that must be created by the artist's hand. Instead, Duchamp's readymades emphasize the artist's selection and presentation of an object as the creative act, thus questioning the definition of art and the role of the artist.

💡Fountain

The term 'Fountain' in the video refers to Duchamp's most famous readymade, a mass-produced porcelain urinal that he signed and presented as art. This work is pivotal as it sparked significant debate about the nature of art and the authority of the artist. 'Fountain' exemplifies Duchamp's challenge to traditional artistic values and his exploration of the concept of the readymade, ultimately influencing the development of modern art and the Dada movement.

💡Cubism

Cubism is an early 20th-century art movement pioneered by Picasso and Braque, characterized by the fragmentation and reassembly of objects in an abstract manner. In the video, Duchamp's early work reflects a shift towards Cubism, as seen in his painting that was rejected by the Cubists for being 'too futurist'. This event marked a turning point for Duchamp, leading him to distance himself from artistic groups and to develop his unique approach to art.

💡Chance

Chance, as discussed in the video, refers to the element of randomness or unpredictability in the creation of art. Duchamp's engagement with chance is a significant aspect of his work, particularly in his readymades. It is a method that moves away from conscious thought and control, allowing for the introduction of new and unexpected ideas. This concept is exemplified in his 'Bicycle Wheel', where the spinning motion introduces an element of chance and playfulness, challenging the traditional methods of artistic creation.

💡Dada

Dada is an art movement that emerged during World War I, characterized by anti-art sentiments and a rejection of the prevailing standards in art. The video connects Duchamp's work with the Dada movement, particularly through the element of chance in his art. Duchamp's provocative and humorous approach to art, as seen in 'The Fountain', aligns with the Dadaist spirit of challenging established norms and questioning the very definition of art.

💡Authorship

Authorship in the context of the video pertains to the concept of artistic creation and the identity of the creator. Duchamp's readymades, especially 'The Fountain', challenge traditional notions of authorship by presenting found objects as art without significant alteration. The video discusses the controversy surrounding the creation of 'The Fountain', suggesting that Duchamp may have used a female pseudonym or that a female friend may have been involved, which further complicates the issue of authorship and the role of the artist.

💡Replicas

Replicas in the video refer to the reproductions of Duchamp's original readymades, which were created in the 1960s in collaboration with Arturo Schwarz. These replicas challenge the idea of originality and authenticity in art, as they were made using traditional sculptural techniques and signed by Duchamp. The creation of replicas allowed Duchamp to continue questioning the concepts of authorship, identity, and the value of art, while also preserving certain qualities of the original works.

💡Rrose Selavy

Rrose Selavy is the female alter ego adopted by Duchamp in the early 1920s. The video mentions this persona in the context of Duchamp's playful and subversive approach to art and identity. Rrose Selavy allowed Duchamp to explore issues of gender and authorship, further complicating the narrative around his works and the concept of the artist's identity. This persona also reflects Duchamp's mischievous nature and his willingness to challenge established norms.

💡Étant Donnés

Étant Donnés is Duchamp's last major work, an installation that was revealed posthumously and is viewable only through a peephole. The video highlights this work as a testament to Duchamp's continuous exploration of artistic concepts and his desire to engage viewers in a collaborative creative act. Étant Donnés encapsulates Duchamp's innovative spirit and his belief in the active participation of the viewer in completing the artistic experience, thus challenging the traditional relationship between art, artist, and audience.

Highlights

Marcel Duchamp's 'Fountain', a mass-produced urinal, challenged traditional artistic norms and sparked debates about what constitutes art.

Duchamp's work is seen as revolutionary, influencing both the 20th and 21st-century art, despite being contentious.

Duchamp is credited as the father of conceptualism, an art form focused on ideas rather than traditional aesthetics.

His approach to art was individualistic, rejecting groupthink and traditional artistic methods.

Duchamp's early works showed influences from post-Impressionism and later shifted towards Cubism.

The rejection of his painting by the Cubists led Duchamp to distance himself from artistic groups and their rules.

Duchamp's encounter with airplane propellers at the Paris Aviation salon inspired a new approach to art, beyond traditional painting.

His 'readymade' concept, starting with 'Bicycle Wheel', introduced found objects as art, defying the notion of art as beautiful.

Duchamp's 'readymades' were initially private recreations, not intended as public art, challenging the art world's seriousness.

The 'Fountain' was Duchamp's public provocation, submitted under a pseudonym to an exhibition with no jury.

The original 'Fountain' was hidden from public view and eventually discarded, but its conceptual impact remained.

Duchamp's work on 'Fountain' and other readymades was a significant contribution to the discussion on the definition of art.

The concept of 'chance' in art, influenced by mathematician Henri Poincaré, played a role in Duchamp's approach to readymades.

Duchamp's legacy includes challenging the idea of authorship, originality, and the role of the artist through his replicas of readymades.

Conspiracy theories suggest that 'Fountain' may have been created by a woman, though evidence directly links it to Duchamp.

Duchamp's later life saw him exploring chess as an art form, finding parallels between the strategy of chess and artistic creation.

His final work, 'Étant Donnés', was a surprise to the art world, continuing Duchamp's tradition of challenging conventional art forms.

Duchamp believed that both the artist and the viewer are necessary to complete a work of art, involving the audience in the creative process.

Transcripts

In 1917 Marcel Duchamp bought a mass-produced  porcelain urinal from a plumbing suppliers, laid  

it on its side, signed it, and then put it in an  exhibition, and called it art. "The Fountain" as it  

was named, has cast a long Shadow not only over the  20th century, but also the 21st century. Over 100  

years after it was created, it is still considered  one of the most revolutionary Works in art history.  

It is also one of the most contentious. For some, Duchamp is the father of conceptualism, the  

so-called art of ideas, for other, he is a charlatan  responsible for the demise of traditional Artistry.  

But maybe we should look on this work differently?  We are not talking about brush-strokes or colours,  

or textures, we are talking about ideas. Works like  this are important. They stimulate discussion and  

pose difficult questions. This is not a film about  taste or style, and it is not a film about what  

is right or wrong. It is a film that like Duchamp's  urinal, asked the question: "What is art?"

Born in Normandy in 1887, Duchamp had a perfectly  normal middle-class upbringing. His grandfather  

was a painter and they had a fairly cultural life.  His father was a notary, an important legal figure  

in France, and Marcel was one of six children,  of whom four became artists. Rather to their  

father's disappointment. The young Duchamp was  intelligent but not very academic. He knew from  

an early age he wanted to be an artist. One  of his earliest Works was painted when he  

was only 15 years old, and shows his debt  to the post Impressionists. In 1902 at the  

age of 16, he moved to Paris to live with his  artist brother. Arriving in the city just when  

the Great Revolutions in modern painting were  emerging. Fauvism around 1905, and then a couple of  

years later cubism. His two older brothers and  his sister, were very much involved with the  

Cubist movement, and around this time Duchamp's  own work began to reflect a shift towards that

style. In 1911 he produced this painting, using  Cubist principles, but his breakthrough was  

this painting, which is more ambivalent in  its relationship with cubism. He still used  

The limited pallet and the fragmentation of  that movement, but his figure is in a state  

of Perpetual Motion, something the Italian  futurists were exploring. Just before the  

painting's first presentation at the 1912  Salon des Indépendants in Paris, it was rejected  

by the Cubist as being "too futurist", and  he was told the title of the work was too  

literal. This was a real turning point for  Duchamp, and after this he had very little  

interest in groups, or being told what to do.  Duchamp: "No I never enjoyed being part of a group. I've  

always wanted to make something of "personal"  contribution to it, which is only can only be  

done if you think by yourself and not follow  the general rules of the of the group."

In 1912, Duchamp, Constantin Brancusi and  Fernand Léger attended the Paris Aviation salon.  

All three were astounded at the sheer beauty of  the huge airplane propellers on display. "Painting  

is washed up", Duchamp said to his companions after  a moment of silence, "Who will ever do anything  

better than that propeller? can you?". In that moment,  Duchamp was presented with the possibility of  

changing the rules of Art, and inventing from  scratch an entirely new way of being an artist.  

In 1913, he abandoned art altogether and got a job  as a librarian. Ironically, he was never much of a  

reader, and it was during this period he carried  out the only serious sustained reading he did in  

his life. He studied mathematics and physics, read  a lot of books written by the French mathematician  

and theoretical physicist Henri Poincaré, and started  experimenting with combining art and scientific  

concepts, a more cerebral approach. This was an  exhilarating time, when new discoveries had  

shaken the foundations of science. Periodicals,  books, performances, and lectures, revealed  

groundbreaking scientific and mathematical  theories in physics, psychology, biolog,y and  

many other disciplines. Ideas and Concepts which  were being discussed in artistic and intellectual  

circles. Poicaré is best known today for laying  the mathematical foundations of Chaos Theory,  

but his writings on the fourth dimension, and  his philosophical discussions of the breakdown  

of principles would be a major influence on Duchamp's new art. The Notions of probability  

and chance, played an important role in Poincarè's  ideas as it would with Duchamp, and eventually  

the Dada movement. The element of chance in art is  not a new idea. Leonardo da Vinci advocated chance  

as an inspiration and encouraged the viewers  to search for meaning in chaos, and later in  

the 18th century artists like Alexander Cozens,  an English landscape painter, expanded on the  

idea. It became Duchamp's method to move away from  conscious thought, and his great contribution  

to Artistic debate, the readymade, would be  a direct development of his engagement with chance.

Duchamp's great work of chance, was  his first readymade "Bicycle Wheel" in 1913.  

At his Paris Studio, Duchamp mounted a bicycle  wheel upside down onto a stool, spinning it  

occasionally just to watch it in motion, as the  spokes blurred. He had no intention of showing it  

to anyone and didn't even think of it as a work  of art. Duchamp: "For example in that um bicycle wheel, see  

here, it was 1913, it was in Paris. The word  didn't exist, the thought did not exist in my mind".  

Duchamp used the term "readymade" later to describe  works of art he made from manufactured found  

objects. But in 1913, bicycle wheel wasn't  created as a work of art and wasn't formly  

shown in a gallery space until 1951, and even  then it was a replica. Like all his readymades,  

and there weren't that many, the wheel was chosen  because it was a functional everyday item, with a  

total absence of good or bad taste. The readymade  defied the notion that art must be beautiful.

Well then after, that in 1914, I had the thing called "The Bottle Rack". It was a dryer for bottles,  

made of iron, manufactured". He could have had no  idea just how important these artifacts would be  

in art history, and we wouldn't know for quite a  while. We need to remember, how many people would  

have seen these readymades? Probably less than  a handful. So it wasn't the seismic event some  

see it as, and it didn't cause people to 'rethink'  art. In fact Duchamp didn't really think about it as  

"art" himself until around 1916 - and by then it was  too late. The readymades had all been destroyed!  

It is important to note, that contrary to Modern  conspiracy theories, that conceptual art was a  

"money-making cynical invention", Duchamp didn't sell  any of these, or make any money from the readymades,  

most of which he gave away. In fact, he made next  to nothing from art, until his Pasadena show in

1963. The Art Market was not the Behemoth it is today.

Duchamp: "I believe that art, is the only form of  activity in which man as Man, shows himself to  

be a true individual". One of the biggest effects  of the readymade was on the discussion about the  

definition of Art. In the 12th century, according to  the Oxford English Dictionary, art was defined as  

"skill at doing anything as a result of knowledge  and practice". So for example, the monks who created  

something as glorious as the Book of Kells, would have seen themselves as Craftsmen, not  

artists. By the time of the Renaissance, artists  evolved from Anonymous Craftsmen to individuals,  

practicing an intellectual Pursuit. Paving the  way for the modern idea of an artist. In 1740,  

we get our first real definition of what art is from a writer on Aesthetics, Charles Batteux, who  

wrote a book called "The Fine Arts reduced to a  single principle", which was an attempt to find  

unity among the different theories of beauty and  taste, and create a single principle, a clear-cut  

idea of what constitutes "Fine Art". Batteaux's views were  widely accepted, not only in France, but throughout  

Europe. He stated that "fine arts are fine or  beautiful things, which please of themselves,  

always in Imitation of Nature, and requiring  genius". The main idea of Batteaux was that the  

Arts were a cause of "pleasure", a simple idea that  really took hold. Emmanuel Kent, in 1790 gave a  

more complicated and Nuanced description, that fine  art is "not how it is judged by a viewer but how  

it is created". The idea revolves around two new  Concepts: "The genius" and "aesthetic ideas". By the  

19th century, photography was capable of producing  nature perfectly, and there is a move in the Arts  

towards abstraction, and away from the idea that "Art equals Beauty". Art Nouveau, Impressionism and Fauvism, once  

seen as revolutionary ideas, were now acceptable  to the mainstream, and there was a crisis of sorts  

in what art meant. Modernism brought with it  a revolution in thoughts and ideas, as well as  

new challenges to the definition of art, with works  like Duchamp's bicycle wheel being included in the  

concept of what art was, and the definition was  moving away from the narrow idea of beauty. The  

idea of "what is art?" had to be expanded to  accommodate these new works and ideas.  

By 1974, the American philosopher George Dickie, was  advocating the idea that art institutions such  

as museums and galleries, or anyone who says they  are an artist, have the power to dictate what is  

art and what is not. There are three key points  to consider when discussing Duchamp's Readymades.

First: Selecting an object IS a creative act. Second:  When an object's practical function is removed, it  

becomes something else. Third: The act of presenting  the object, and giving it a title, introduces a new  

thought, thereby giving it a new meaning. So it  took 300 years, but the conventional question  

of "what is art?" has shifted beyond seeing it as a  skill or as a concept of Beauty. Beyond something  

that lies in shape, shapes colour, and line.  To ideas and Concepts created with intense and purpose.

While Duchamp was unintentionally  inventing the readymade, his painting, which  

the cubist's rejected in Paris, "Nude descending  a staircase", was selected for the 1913 Armory  

show in New York City, where Americans  accustomed to more naturalistic art were  

scandalised. It was compared to an "explosion  in a shingle Factory" or a "pile of golf clubs".  

And cartoonists satirised the piece. This footage  is from that time. Let's take a moment, to look  

at the clothes, the cars, the people. Duchamp is  considered scandalous now, imagine what they  

thought in 1913. By this time, Duchamp was  already feeling increasingly isolated in  

France, and saw the United States as a way to  escape what he saw as the stifling art scene.  

Then, the first world war broke out, and Duchamp,  who was exempt from military service due to a heart  

murmur, decided it was time to move to New York  City. He arrived in June 1914, surprised to find  

out that the Scandal had made him the most famous  modern artist in America, and all his paintings at  

the Armory show had sold out. A New York Gallery  offered him $10,000 a year an absolute fortune  

then, for his entire output of paintings. But he  refused, saying he was finished with painting.

This  was 2 years before the fountain. In early 1916,  Duchamp started to rethink ideas around the  

readymades he had left in Paris. He wrote to his sister  to ask if she could send them to New York, but it  

was too late. She had thrown them all out as  junk when cleaning out his studio in Paris in 1915.

Humour is very much part of Duchamp's  modus operandi, and I think that although  

he wanted his ideas to be taken seriously.  he also wanted "not being serious", to be taken seriously.

Then and now, the art World lacks any sense of humour or irony, but Duchamp had a  

mischievous streak, and was willing to ask big and  very serious questions, but with a healthy dose of  

humour and skepticism. So far his Readymades had been a  sort of "private Recreation", but the "Fountain" would  

be a very public attack on the contradictions  of the art World. Some people see Fountain as a  

"Joke", and that's not a bad description. It started  out, in a way, as one of the most subversive jokes  

of the 20th century. The American Society of  Independent Artists was founded in 1917 and  

Duchamp was one of the directors. The independents  saw themselves as championing everything new and  

progressive in art, and to that effect, their first  exhibition didn't have any committee or jury.  

It was designed to break down the barriers  artist faced, and as long as you paid $6  

you could submit two Works, no questions asked.  Duchamp disliked the group - as he disliked all  

groups, and decided to provoke them. To test them  even. It was in that frame of mind, that in April  

1917, Duchamp made his way to the JL Mott Iron  Works, a plumbing suppliers situated at 118 Fifth Ave.

The only way for Duchamp's "provocation"  to work, was by submitting Fountain under a  

false name: Richard Mutt. The name was derived from  the manufacturer's name, but also inspired by the  

comic strip "Mutt and Jeff" which Duchamp loved.  and "Richard" is French slang for a rich showoff.  

or a money bags. The committee decided, after much  debate, that Richard Mutt's "Fountain", was not a work  

of art, but they were tied by their own rules  into accepting it. Fountain however was never  

seen by the public at the exhibition, and was not  mentioned in the catalogue. Instead, it remained for  

the whole show hidden behind a curtain, an act of  cowardice by the committee. A photo was taken by  

Alfred Stieglitz, and that was the last anyone  saw saw of the actual urinal. The object had  

been thrown away. The thoughts and the ideas  behind the object however, could not so easily  

be disposed of, and in both the literature that  followed, and the ideas that sprang forth from it,

Duchamp's Fountain had ignited the spark, and art would never be the same again.

Many of Duchamp's original readymades,  like Fountain, were lost, dismantled,  

or destroyed, and by the 1960s, only seven of  Duchamp's 14 original readymades remained, or  

survived only as photographs. Starting in 1964,  Arturo Schwartz collaborated with Duchamp on  

producing replicas of 14 of his most important  readymades, in numbered and signed editions. Ironically,  

Schwarz had to return to traditional sculptural  techniques to recreate them, challenging the  

very idea of the original readymade. Interviewer: "What would  happen if in fact these manufactured Readymades, were  

mass-produced, and we could all buy one?" Duchamp: "No no, you have to sign them. 

They are signed. They are signed and numbered. An  edition of eight each, like any sculpture, so it's  

still in the realm of Art. In the form of technique, you just make eight, and you sign them and number them".

The replicas sent shock waves through the  art World, by challenging traditional ideas of  

"authorship", "identity", and the artist role, while  paradoxically preserving certain qualities of the  

original Works, ultimately becoming stand-ins for  the readymades. Ever the provocateur, Duchamp saw it as  

an opportunity to create controversy and challenge  the artistic establishment. He embraced replication  

as a way of rethinking terms, such as creativity,  originality, and value. And to blur conventional categories.

Everyone loves a conspiracy, especially  if it debunks Modern Art. And by challenging  

Duchamp's authorship of the fountain, you are also  challenging the very Concepts. In 1982, a letter was  

found, dated 11th of April 1917. In it, Duchamp  wrote to his sister: "One of my female friends,  

under a masculine pseudonym "Richard Mutt", sent in  a porcelain urinal as a sculpture". This letter has led  

to claims the fountain was actually created by an  unnamed woman, not Duchamp. He didn't identify his  

"female friend", but many candidates have been put  forward as creators. Most notably the Dadaist, Elsa  

von Freytag-Loringhoven. One of the most  extraordinary characters in art history. A poet,  

performance artist, and object maker. A truly  extraordinary woman. However, Freytag-Loringhoven, 

despite her talent for self-promotion, never  claimed this work as her own. either at the time,  

or in the years that followed, whether in private  conversations, or in published writings. Furthermore,  

none of the many individuals involved, ever  mentioned her name in connection with the work,  

either at the time or in their later interviews or  memoirs. Duchamp himself, adopted a female Persona  

in the early 1920s Rrose Selavy, and 3 weeks before  the fountain scandal, he wore women's clothing to  

an inaugural party for the magazine, "The blind man".  So there is speculation that the female friend he  

mentions to his sister was his female alter ego.  There were however, women in the New York Avant-Garde  

scene, who WERE involved in the 1917 Fountain  incident, and are more likely candidates for  

the mystery "female friend". Women who, like Freytag- -Loringhoven have also been forgotten about  

in history. Louise Norton, and Beatrice Wood. Both  crucial contributors to the story of the fountain.  

As noted, it was critical that the work should  not be submitted by Duchamp. I think the important  

thing to point out here, is that in his letter he  wrote "sent", and not "created". Beatrice Wood, a friend  

of Duchamp, was an artist and writer who made an  important contribution to the myth surrounding  

this new Infamous, but unseen object. Wood wrote  the first defence of fountain in her 1917  

article, "The Richard Mutt case", where crucially she  wrote: :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  

that its useful significance disappeared under  the new title and point of view. Created a new  

thought for that object". In her later memoirs, Wood  reiterated that the fountain was in fact created  

by Duchamp. Louis Norton was a Dada poet, a writer, and a  close friend of Duchamp, and she too is important  

in the story. She is almost certainly the "female  friend", who sent in the fountain on his behalf.  

We can't be 100% certain, but it is her address  partially detectable on the paper entry ticket  

in the Stieglitz photograph. The likeliest candidate for  the "female friend". Duchamp claimed responsibility  

for "Fountain" until the end of his life in  1968, and knowing what we know about the artist, 

if he was not the creator, he would have taken great joy in revealing that.

In 1923, at  the age of 36, Duchamp suddenly announced that   he had "given up art for chess". From his early painting,  

"Portrait of chess players" in 1911 to "Opposition  and sister squares are reconciled" of 1932, to  

"Reunion", the performance chess game he staged with  John Cage in 1968, the game of chess was important  

to Duchamp, who saw many connections between chess  and art. Duchamp: "Everybody can play chess, but I took it  

very seriously, and enjoyed it, because I found some  common points between chess and painting.

Actually, when you play a game of chess, it is like designing  something or constructing a mechanism of some kind".  

He had played chess since he was a child, and  as an adult he played for France in championships,  

wrote a chess book, translated another, covered  chess for "Le Soir" newspaper, and became an official of  

the French Chess Federation. "The chess pieces are  the block alphabet which shapes thoughts", he once  

said, "And these thoughts, although making a visual  design on the chessboard, express their beauty  

abstractly, like a poem". Chess and Duchamp make  sense: He was disciplined and self-absorbed, happy  

to work alone for long hours and days, which made  studying the games of the great Masters possible.

He said that "while all artists were not chess  players, all chess players were artists", and he  

loved the conceptual nature of the game,  its pointlessness, and the nearly infinite  

possible combinations of moves and tactics. He was  described by a chess master as someone who would  

always take risks in order to play a beautiful  game, rather than be cautious and brutal to win.  

The kind of risks he had taken as an artist.  A great conceptual artist quitting the art  

world to play chess, would be a lovely way to end  this film. But sadly, it is yet another strategic  

game that Duchamp was playing. He wanted to be  known as the artist whose final artwork was to  

quit art to play chess, but in fact he quietly  created artistic experiments for the rest of  

his life. He worked on films, in which he also made  appearances, and he began a huge project creating  

miniature versions of all of his own works that  he put into a suitcase as a kind of traveling museum.

At the age of 76, Duchamp agreed to hold his first ever career retrospective at the Pasadena  

art museum in 1963, then an obscure  museum, in a provincial Outpost.

The impact of that show, had a huge effect on  a generation of artists who would go on  

to revolutionise the contemporary  Art world. When he died, 5 years

later, it was discovered that he had been  working for 20 years in total secrecy on  

his last major work "Étant Donnés", an installation  visible only through a peephole in a wooden  

door. It was a total surprise to the art  world. But as with all his works, it was a  

collaboration. Not between himself and another  artist, or curator, or writer, but between him and us.

Duchamp: "The creative act is not performed by the  artist alone. The Spectator brings the work into  

contact with the external World, by deciphering  and interpreting its inner qualification. And thus,  

adds his contribution to the creative act". Both the  artist and the viewer are necessary to complete a  

work of art. We bring our own external thoughts  and ideas into Duchamp's world, and by doing so,  

we are challenged to ask the question: "What is  art?" - Maybe, the answer is in the question?  

Interviewer: "Why did you make it so difficult?"  Duchamp: "Well, because I didn't want to make it easy".