Marcel Duchamp Fountain Scandal at Philadelphia Museum of Art

Fountain, a readymade sculpture by Marcel Duchamp led to what is now known as Marcel Duchamp Fountain Scandal. The Fountain is presently on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art examines the career of the controversial artist and his readymades.

ARTNEWS

Marcel Duchamp Fountain Scandal is at the core of a new show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It provides art lovers the opportunity to learn about the controversial piece and other readymades.

BY ARTCENTRON

PHILADELPHIA- In celebration of the centennial of Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is providing art lovers with the opportunity to learn about the controversial piece. When Marcel Duchamp created Fountain one hundred years ago, it was provocative. In spite of all the controversies, however, Fountain was an influential work that changed the course of modern art. Marcel Duchamp created the piece in the spring of 1917.

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After buying a urinal from the New York showroom of the J. L. Mott Iron Works, Duchamp signing it “R. Mutt,” and anonymously submits it as Fountain to an exhibition organized by the Society of Independent Artists. He described the Fountain as Readymade. The Society of Independent Artists rejected the piece. It, however, became the center of controversy when photographs of the Fountain was featured in The Blind Man, an avant-garde magazine published by Duchamp and his friends

Marcel Duchamp and the Fountain Scandal includes period photographs, publications. Also on display are more of the artist’s readymades from the museum’s unrivaled Marcel Duchamp collection. Duchamp’s readymades are mass-produced objects that the artist chose, signed, and sometimes inscribed with mysterious phrases.