Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French-American artist whose work upended assumptions about what art could be.
His 1917 *Fountain*—a urinal signed "R.
Mutt" and submitted to an exhibition—remains the defining gesture of conceptual art.
To call something very Duchamp suggests irreverence toward artistic conventions, privileging idea over craft.
Prepared in advance
- found objectRepurposed everyday item as art
- intentionPlanned purpose for acting
- contextCircumstances shaping meaning
- meaningWhat something signifies
authorship · appropriation · recontextualization · gesture · designation · selection · questioning · redefinition
Prepared in advance
- FountainStructure spouting water skyward
- urinalWall-mounted toilet alternative
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
- DadaAbsurdist artistic rebellion
conceptual · anti-art · provocateur · iconoclast · revolutionary · modernist · controversial · influential
Pop art icon
- conceptual artWork valuing notion over form
- performance artEmbodied creative expression
- installationProcess of putting in
- postmodernismSkepticism toward universal truths
Rauschenberg · legacy · successor · inspiration · homage · reference
Avant-garde Zurich venue
- ZurichSwiss financial center
- nihilismRejection of objective meaning
- absurdismPhilosophy embracing existence's irrationality
- Man RayAvant-garde photographer, Dadaist
Tristan Tzara · provocation · anti-bourgeois · nonsense · chance · randomness · collage · assemblage
A secondary persona
- genderSocial identity category
- personaAssumed public identity
- disguiseIdentity-concealing alteration
- wordplayVerbal wit techniques
pun · ambiguity · performance · masquerade · fluidity · transformation · pseudonym · cross-dressing
Supreme competitive title
- endgameConcluding phase of competition
- strategyPlanned approach to goals
- tournamentMulti-round competitive event
- obsessionPersistent, intrusive preoccupation
retirement · composition · blindfold · dedication · intellectual · contemplation
readymade
Prepared in advance
- found objectRepurposed everyday item as art
- intentionPlanned purpose for acting
- contextCircumstances shaping meaning
meaning · authorship · appropriation · recontextualization · gesture · designation · selection · questioning · redefinition · transformation
readymade
Prepared in advance
- FountainStructure spouting water skyward
- urinalWall-mounted toilet alternative
- avant-gardeInnovative cultural pioneers
Dada · conceptual · anti-art · provocateur · iconoclast · revolutionary · modernist · controversial · influential · visionary
Warhol
Pop art icon
- conceptual artWork valuing notion over form
- performance artEmbodied creative expression
- installationProcess of putting in
Rauschenberg · postmodernism · legacy · successor · inspiration · homage · reference
Cabaret Voltaire
Avant-garde Zurich venue
- ZurichSwiss financial center
- nihilismRejection of objective meaning
- absurdismPhilosophy embracing existence's irrationality
Tristan Tzara · Man Ray · provocation · anti-bourgeois · nonsense · chance · randomness · collage · assemblage · irreverence
alter ego
A secondary persona
wordplay · pun · ambiguity · performance · masquerade · fluidity · transformation · pseudonym · cross-dressing
Fountain
Structure spouting water skyward
grandmaster
Supreme competitive title
- endgameConcluding phase of competition
- strategyPlanned approach to goals
- tournamentMulti-round competitive event
obsession · retirement · composition · blindfold · dedication · intellectual · contemplation
- artistsPablo Picasso, painter, artist, illustrators, Leonardo da Vinci
- Modern ArtFauvism, Dada, surrealism, Surrealism, futurism
- arts history since 1900modern art, contemporary art, Bauhaus, abstract expressionism, surrealism
- avant-gardeDada, Futurism, Constructivism, Cabaret Voltaire, anti-art
- Modern Art Museumsmodern art, contemporary art, permanent collection, temporary exhibits, paintings
- Modern ArtistsPicasso, Pablo Picasso, Matisse, Pollock, Warhol
DuchampMichelangelo
Florentine sculptor and painter
Rembrandt · Norman Rockwell · Vermeer · Rodin · Monet
DuchampOld Masters
Pre-modern European artists
Renaissance masters · Leonardo da Vinci · Caravaggio · Titian · Velázquez
- Marcel DuchampUrinal-as-art provocateur