DECLARATION of intent. 10th April to 7th May 1917 and onwards
The Indeps laying down of a gauntlet: To the 19th Century Art school ethic of the day as to what Art should strive to be in an age where Cubism & Rousseau's art was held up as a new route against 'convention'. To a more individualistic pursuit rather than one rigid set of artistic school(s) of thought. Hence the 'Supplication' article on page 11 from the ever reserved and non-boastful Eilshemius.
"Like Mr Mutt many of us had quite an exorbitant notion of the Independence of the Independents. It was a sad surprise to learn of a Board of Censors sitting upon the ambiguous question. What is Art?" P.B.T.
Blind Man 2 : Mina Loy alludes to Alchemy within her "O Marcel... Where the 'salting' woman alludes to the combine of Sulphur (Male) & Mercury (Female) in all great body, spirit & soul analogies. First, you must begin with lesser things to obtain the greater...overthrowing convention. 'Resign by shooting an Englishman first' witty banter
'Anyhow Duchamp meditating the level of all values, witness the elimination of all Sophistication' Third Dimension by Mina Loy
Blindman 1 & 2 must be read to fully appreciate the before & after
The original was never exhibited at the Independents show - the picture (photographed as an Exhibit) was on view for a number of weeks at 291 Gallery.
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| Photograph Stieglitz 'Fountain by R. Mutt' |
Another reason the photo - in an aesthetic sense presents multiple perceptions.
A sardonic objective idea? Or an iconography of attributes
Preview the Tate film (below) re-located in a Liverpool (Loo/bird haha) public toilet for a day. The Fountain (repro) now becomes 'The Toilet of Venus'. (Eu de toilette) Does it say more about how we are made to fit into our surroundings?
Change the object into one of a new reverence/relevance! Would you dismiss this as a piece of art now it is not in a 'gallery' space? Should it be displayed outdoors?
R. Mutt's urinal is not a throwaway object as such, it's a utility. A useful object and like some utilities they can form more than one function. Into a new trans-form-action.
The Fountain challenges your perceived notions of what a visual art should be in the first place. Should there be a rigid system of guidelines as to what art chooses to be? The artist bears that weight
and entrusts the viewer's comprehension. Even if it is a reproduction. (The very source of human existence in itself)
Dethroned on the eve of the 9th: Le Fountain relief...lain before you
The 'Fountain' continues to be a confrontational piece. It's a very public statement. A public toilet 'mounted on a pedestal! Vulgar? The artist has chosen it for a totally new purpose. Now disassociated from its original functional level. Like an actor the method of choice was to switch roles wasn't this it's true elevation? It has found a new stage.
The Fountain is for the public. We all queue up to have a view (point). It showers us. Do we as the audience applaud in time? The part is key & the audience has to play their role too. It's time to view within a new theatre.
The ACT of EXPOSURE : euphoria in air & water
The resting 'pissoir' is deadpan. It works as a revolt if you will. (Against a hierarchy in art) An unravelling of pretence.
V U E - a combined narrative of meditations
The Fountain has many levels. Erect yet flat on its back. Is it a celebratory fountain or one that alludes to a fountain of youth? Like Dada - in French da-da is 'hobby horse' for child's play. The new Dadaism movement was heralded from Zurich in Feb 1916. In NY these playful machinations were to some extent already in motion. To some, it flings the waste of man back in his face. Yet It eschews violence. A binding implicit meditation.
The 'original' was conceived bearing the pseudonym of a well crafted, glistening enamelled Iron object. A tactile construct.
From a side view, it looks like a protective crib, from the front an embryonic feminine uterus form. Where once the urinal's exposure was hidden from view, it is now fully exposed. It's original function now re-interpreted. There are always two Fountains.
Requires one to view his oeuvre in any combination...
white-curved-pure-smooth-hard-cold-warm-new-old-virginal-calm-erotic-wet-dry-flowing-water-waste-thirst-urine-splash-pool-fountain-shower-rain-empty-full-peaceful-hate-dislike-like-ambivalent-metaphor-relationship-ignore-enthuse-past-future-present
...to the 1 blindman there must be 2 to see the new dawn's light is issue 3
A manmade object now exposes and espouses the masculine becomes feminine. Feminine becomes masculine. A juxtaposition.
The Third Eye
Was it spontaneous or more of a planned throw of a stick to a wheel? It was never a thoughtless gimmick. It was a gatecrash against the false assertion of the Independent committee themselves.
There was still chance it could have been re-evaluated but the 'gang' of four had taken their cue.
By know means is it a standard urinal. There were plenty of other urinal designs for the artist to choose. Yet this one reflected something back for its chosen selection. A unisex function toward a duality so inevitable it divides those who look with one eye only and not towards the binocular potential.
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| old entitlement 'Landing an Heiress' Can the lady fly? No. I dived straight in |
RE-SIGN Re-assign Re-sign or re-design: Spelling/spilling it out
It was an ACT of intent to create the 'readymade'. Without the Act of the artist, it would not materialise. Just as he chose the timing of the comb...
This exhibit espouses duality and becomes. He's moving the pieces like a move on a board...once the move is in motion the task assigned and inscribed.
April 13th: Reply to Duchamp's resignation letter dated 11th April
Katherine Dreier who voted down the entry wanted Duchamp to re-consider. In her letter, she writes - "As I was saying to Arensberg, I felt it was of much more importance to have you connected with our Society than to have the piece of plumbing which was surreptitiously stolen, remain. (She thinks less of it than the importance of him at this stage & would not have known the Fountain was soon to be Photographed by Stieglitz, hence it's disappearance)
KD continues "When I voted " No", I voted on the question of originality-I did not see anything pertaining to originality in it; that does not mean that I could not also have seen it. To me, no other question came up; it was simply a question of whether a person has a right to buy a readymade object and show it with their name attached to an exhibition?
Arensberg tells me that this was in accord with you (sic) "Readymades", and I told him that was a new thought to me as the only "readymades" I saw were groups which were extremely original in their handling. I did not know that you had conceived of single objects."
Duchamp had 'exhibited' two of his readymades in 1916 at the Bourgeois Gallery. 3rd - 9th April 1916 (Hat rack/coat rack) And KD would have been familiar with his readymades within his studio.
To her knowledge, Arensberg let Katherine know that it was Duchamp's idea of the 'classification' of readymades . Yet in her eye, a 'single' object was not sufficient after viewing his group of 'combinations' ie Wheel attached to a stool, metal coat hanger on wood, hat rack - bentwood S shapes attached to a wooden base..
She alludes then to coming round to the argument - that does not mean that I could not also have seen it - The reveal in the last sentence of knowing that 'you' meaning Duchamp had conceived of the use of single objects as a 'new' state of art authorship.
Extracts from CAMFIELD FOUNTAIN
Katherine Dreier went on to write to another director that Duchamp could give a talk on his art and also for this Richard Mutt to appear...she also pointed out the word Mutt' was too close to the Mutt/Jeff cartoons of the day.
*There would be no ill will on his part anyway or hers for Duchamp and Dreier were soon to be involved with their own Societe Anonyme Inc named by Man Ray in 1920. An arrangement whereby they extolled modernism through lectures, exhibitions and publications for the next twenty years. Duchamp had his ear to the ground and would always highlight new modernists.
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| Title : Tu 'm 1918 (spell it backwards to Mut) |
A Single Readymade object was around as such in 1913. The Bottle rack...lost in Paris and not in his NY apartment studio. Duchamp had viewed this Bottle/rack as being an already finished sculpture. (see below letter to Suzanne Duchamp)
MANU-FRACTURED: In advance of the broken arm. Like a Spade handle door. Outplay your opponents & you deserve to win the great swindle
Duchamp at the time was working on his Great glass and after purchasing the snow shovel 'In advance of a broken arm' (something akin to a chess game - his hat rack would be called Trap' another sign of a chess move) he re-evaluated his earlier pieces back in France.
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| Pharmacie 1914 |
Duchamp added two small gouache figures between the trees...these to me are denoting Red for Mercury (also used in paints) & Yellow for Sulphur. (S atomic number 16) Not to go unnoticed with the 'S' shaped hat rack. Are these two distant figures walking away, towards us or towards each other? Distant yet near. Is he denoting his sister and himself as the red figure...? (Mercury is also the Roman God of science & commerce..who he alludes to in his Roulette bond)
A favourable corkscrew mind
*Letter to his sister Suzanne dated 15th January 1916* A gifted painter she had exhibited in Paris at the Salon and was to become a well-known Dada painter in her own right.
Emergency in need of twice: A pair of scissors or the corkscrew?
"Now, when you went upstairs, you saw the bicycle wheel and a bottle rack in my studio. I bought that as an already finished sculpture. And I have an idea about the bottle rack: listen.
Here in New York I have bought some objects similar in style and called them 'readymade', you know enough English to understand the meaning of 'already finished' that I have assigned to these subjects- I sign them and put an inscription on them in English. I'll give you a few examples; I bought a big snow shovel upon which I wrote 'In advance of the broken arm'...Don't try too hard to understand this in a romantic or impressionistic or cubistic way - it doesn't have anything to do with that; another 'readymade' is called 'emergency in favour of twice' ...This whole preamble is for one reason: Go get the bottle rack. I am making it into a readymade from afar. On the inside of the bottom ring, you will write the inscription I will give you at the end here, using small letters and painting them on with a brush and silver-white paint, and in the same lettering you are to sign it as follows:
"Marcel Duchamp"
Readymade Sculpture acquired...
The inscription was missing from the next page of the letter, however, he assigned his sister Suzanne to attribute the 'sculpture'. Yet this was never retrieved - and maybe after six months an inevitable clear out had occurred. It meant more to him for her to sign it. To affix an added attribute to the object. Until this was completed in her own hand the (female) inscription would induce further meaning into the work thus becoming an assisted readymade. (The inscription & signature was key even if it was not by his own hand until then it remained a 'finished sculpture')
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| Happy Birthday |
Hanging Scripture in a sculpture
He would later gift her a Bottle rack for her Birthday in 1921 (original readymade aided sculpture signed by Duchamp lovingly in red)
The second Letter dated April 11th 1917. One day after the public opening of the Independents exhibition. Don't take it as face value..he's co-ordinating it.
... this letter his story as chief instigator/writer of the 'readymade' wasn't published until 1982 via the American Archives translation by Francis M Naumann. (This ensures the sculpture as a 'readymade' is born into fruition)
"One of my female friends under a masculine pseudonym, Richard Mutt, sent in a porcelain urinal as a sculpture; it was not at all indecent-no reason for refusing it. The committee has decided to refuse to show this thing. I have handed in my resignation and it will be a bit of gossip of some value in New York"
"Raconte ce detail a la famille:Les Inndependents sont ouverts ici avec gros succes. Une de mes amies sous un pseudonyme masculin, Richard Mutt, avait envoye une pissotiere en porcelaine comme sculpture; ce n'etait pas du tout indecent aucune raison pour la refuser. Le comite a decide de refuser d'exposer cette chose. J'ai donne ma demission et c'est un potin aura sa valeur dans New York"
Holding up a reflected mirror
A little white lie Duchamp played out to his sister - an act to keep the 'story' of R.Mutt going and to keep his identity hidden. His signature of R.Mutt appropriates it to him. He is also serving a polite notice that the fictional 'female' friend would not want to be associated with such a thing. Louise Norton handed it over ( a well-respected translator) and Charles Demuth named her as 'Mutte' (Mother) to a reporter. Giving a clue to her part at a time when the US & Germany were at war.
A twist on a once earlier letter where he'd assigned Suzanne Duchamp to sign his bottle rack.
He plays with gender roles which would be more fully revealed in his Rrose Selavy depiction.
He and his group of artist friends will defend the 'choice' of the submission entry in The Blindman 2. Only the instigator(s) would resign...Duchamp & Arensberg.
Another Ironwork enamelled: Early Pop Art. Metaphor of the 'Pharmacy' marriage bed
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| Ere : early times ed : of equal meaning 1916/17 |
Duchamp's love of controlled chance links his 'found/bought' readymades as does this piece including the colouring of the enamel bars. Red for Mercury, Yellow for Sulphur, Pale Violet for Iron. The middle bar is left white, as a sign of..? The Enamel would feature soon within the urinal too. Many bathroom features of the time were enamelled like bathtubs of the day. (Hence in the name JL Mott Ironworks)
Turning an art wheel set in motion via (latent) DADA lubrication
Movement: The bicycle wheel This functioning Pedastool at once gives movement and stillness at the same time. Capturing like a camera a split moment in time. What else can move yet stay still, a chess piece?
PAWNS can move two squares and also once (holds two moves 2+1= three) You can also perform a false move to outwit your opponent
White : The Snow shovel was his first ready-made on American soil. What better way to create a narrative that helps to clear a path..toward a new future? Or a new bride? It's not a shovel like one for shovelling coal or for digging a hole. It's clearing a path..much like a chess piece. Yet it has to be a snow shovel on account of its dual function via snows transformational qualities. And not only because in New York he would experience the East coast winters.
H2O : Water's Air - Belle Haliene (meaning beautiful air)
Movement/Time: Bicycle Wheel
Winter: Shovel
Spring: Fountain
Summer: Wine Bottle Rack (Red or white?)
Autumn: Hat/coat rack
Air: Paris...
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| 50cc Paris Air |
Two R's in Rrose (Selavy-pronounced c'est la vie)
Two O's in Look (LHOQ : LHOOQ)
Two T's in Mutt (RMuTT) + Mutte/mute Mother)
Two O's in Mona (Both Mona - meaning ONE. Count one & one in LHOQ)
Two M's Tu 'm (You bore me - by birth)
R.O.T.O.M/M.O.T.O.R - MOTOR of the comet head
See the Jura-Paris Road experience of night time driving & 'the headlight child' in 1912 where the headlights were described akin to a comet
Rrose looks on poverty with hope/desire re birth
Bore of Desire & poverty? See beautiful breath of water (Selavy's eau de toilette)
TWO MOTHER'S BORE Marcel Duchamp & Rrose Selavy
Tu'm Mona R_M_utt (eut ete) Ready Made LHOQ Rrose
Tu 'm MM 2,000
'Bellemere': Beautiful Mother - Look at Mona
TOTOR nickname of M.D: He's a Ready made Two O's in Look (LHOQ : LHOOQ)
Two T's in Mutt (RMuTT) + Mutte/mute Mother)
Two O's in Mona (Both Mona - meaning ONE. Count one & one in LHOQ)
Two M's Tu 'm (You bore me - by birth)
R.O.T.O.M/M.O.T.O.R - MOTOR of the comet head
See the Jura-Paris Road experience of night time driving & 'the headlight child' in 1912 where the headlights were described akin to a comet
Rrose looks on poverty with hope/desire re birth
Bore of Desire & poverty? See beautiful breath of water (Selavy's eau de toilette)
TWO MOTHER'S BORE Marcel Duchamp & Rrose Selavy
Tu'm Mona R_M_utt (eut ete) Ready Made LHOQ Rrose
Tu 'm MM 2,000
'Bellemere': Beautiful Mother - Look at Mona
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| LHOOQ |
Mind mapping
Consider our connection to objects. Are these always consistent or unique? Year on year? How much time, how much history must pass before the human investment demands its very upkeep? If you follow your own interpretation you can embellish an object with a collective re-interpretation as well as through memory.Hence Duchamp fascination with veneration of relics and traces of the holy...
1968: Year of resolutions - painting makes him happy & not 'happenings'
At 21:50mins Duchamp mentions the ready-mades in some way have encapsulated his ideas toward the Great Glass. They belong to a 'group'. They each fitted a purpose a synergy within. Originally there were to be eight bachelors which mirror the number of chess board 8 x 8. Then the number 9 became relevant to him and another was added.
The Great Glass : Philadelphia Museum of Art
- it exists within its own plane. In a space and time of not only the present but of the past too. As 'we' the future look upon the elements they play out their order yet remain static. Paused. As if Lifes passions and plays remain in limbo. A climactic scene unfolds...
Another eight-pronged bottle rack for his 2nd Wife Teeny. Looking down and up through the circular 'rings' it creates a simple shute that visually connect to his bicycle wheel and to his later 'optic' wheel film works filmed with Man Ray. Way ahead of its time before 'Video art'.
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| Hanging Grapes Fruits of the vine ready-made for another occasion |
Which side of the fence do you sit? 'Tulip Hysteria Co-ordinating'?
Revel in you - fall in line with the 20th century came up with a new perspective
And like Alice through the looking glass, we see things not as they really are - but as we perceive them to be. Imbued with imagination, ideas exist & throughout life, artists participate in revealing the dream.
Marcel Duchamp Fountain It's history & aesthetics in the context of 1917 William Camfield
Taschen book on Duchamp
Blindman No.2
Nowadays plenty of artists use Connect four, Mousetrap, Operation (Damien Hirst), Twister, Bingo, Solitaire, Snooker, Ping Pong, Football and Poker as useful gaming guides whilst seeking inspiration. Just try not to be dictated to by million dollar market forces. (Unless you are Jeff Koons or a keen forger)
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