Ninja and Pirate

What’s funny about “Fountain” is that it’s actually a brilliant piece of work. It is literally a urinal that was found in some rubble Duchamp submitted to an art show. It was submitted BECAUSE it was a urinal. That’s the joke. It is an everyday piece of porcelain he had literally nothing to do with the construction of aside from painting the phrase “R. Mutt ’17” on the side of it. It was submitted as sort of a thumb-bite to the snobs of art and what’s hilarious is IT DID AMAZINGLY WELL AT THE SHOW. Everyone loved it. It was nouveau and chic and all other words people use to describe things that are weird. The name hastily painted on it created an air of mystery to the judges and viewers. Who was R. Mutt? What was he trying to say? Is the government R. Mutt? Are WE R. Mutt? It was a gag submission that went on to be super successful because self-important critics didn’t get the joke. “Fountain” was basically the equivalent of photocopying your butt and submitting it to a photography gallery…and then the picture goes on to be put on display in museums, and the museums have giant banners outside  telling people to come see the low-quality grainy xerox of your fanny. That’s hysterical. Of course, it seems the fame went to Duchamp’s head and he ended up making a bunch of other ‘found sculptures’ which had little to no message and sort of defeated the intent of the original. So maybe he didn’t even get the joke after a while. Of course this is all just what I recall from my art history classes in college so take it with a grain of salt. And then put that grain of salt on display. BOOM! It all comes full circle baby!