Читать книгу What Artists Do - Leonard Koren - Страница 28

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“They say any artist paying six dollars may exhibit [in the

show]. Mr. Mutt sent in a fountain. Without discussion

this article disappeared and never was exhibited. What

were the grounds for refusing Mr. Mutt’s fountain?

1. Some contended it was immoral, vulgar. 2. Others, it

was plagiarism, a plain piece of plumbing. . . .

“Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the foun-

tain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an

ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful signifi-

cance disappeared under a new title and point of view—

creating a new thought for that object.”

Through the force of a well-thought-out idea and

dogged persistence, Duchamp was eventually able to

surmount skepticism, derision—and even hostility—to

see his concept of art fully sink into the art-world

mindset. But it took almost thirty years to do so. By the

1950s, and even more emphatically in the 1960s, it

would not be an exaggeration to say that Duchamp’s