The Art Idea in the Museum Setting

October 1st, 1991 | RESEARCH

In 1917, the French artist Marcel Duchamp submitted a store-bought porcelain urinal turned on its back and signed R. Mutt to the hanging committee of the Society for Independent Artists in New York. The object, titled Fountain, was never displayed, although the society had pledged itself to show any work by an artist who paid the entry fee. An anonymous article in The Blind Man, a journal published by Duchamp and his friends, argued that 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. That new thought was art.

Document

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Team Members

Danielle Rice, Author, Philadelphia Museum of Art

Citation

Identifier Type: ISSN
Identifier: 0021-8510

Publication: Journal of Aesthetic Education
Volume: 25
Number: 4
Page(s): 127

Related URLs

http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3332910?uid=3739832&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21103344257721

Tags

Audience: General Public | Museum | ISE Professionals
Discipline: Art | music | theater
Resource Type: Peer-reviewed article | Research Products
Environment Type: Exhibitions | Museum and Science Center Exhibits