Easter Break 

RESEARCH FOR ESSAY

I have been reading this book by Damien Hirst and Gordon Burn. I have found it really interesting, not only for the content, which has been giving me insight into the similarities and differences between the work of Hirst and of Duchamp, but also because the layout of the book and the manner in which it is written is very expressive of post-modernism. This has been giving me inspiration as to ideas for my own essay layout, and how it could evolve into a post-modern design.

I have also started fleshing out my essay and doing other readings on Picasso, Duchamp, modernism and post-modernism. 

Easter Break

RESEARCH FOR ESSAY

I believe Shea interprets 'The Fountain' as late-modern as it was too alternative and controversial to be accepted in the early days of Modernism. From this reading, I discovered that Duchamp entered the work to the exhibition under a fake name as a social experiment, which I found really interesting. He entered the work under the name of 'Richard Mutt' along the idea of 'the death of the author'. The artwork was not accepted into the gallery as it was perceived as too inappropriate, immoral and uncomfortable to look at. He photographed the urinal, lighting it in such a way as to replicate the Virgin Mary or Buddha, in order that the audience might question what defines art. 

Although Shea does not directly state, I interpret this a Rhetorical device, which is a key aspect of post-modernism. 

Camfield talks about the work itself in its context before post-modernism. 

From this reading I leaned that the fake name that (supposedly) Duchamp registered the work under (Richard Mutt) was based off the plumbing company Mott, but that he changed it to Mutt because it was too similar (relating to Mutt and Jeff, a popular comic of the time). The fact that Mutt had connotations in the publics mind to the comic provoked the sense that it was a joke. This makes it appear to me more like an art performance, than simply an art piece. 

The two main reasons that people disliked the work were that it was immoral and that it was plagiarism, as he did not make the urinal himself, he just chose the context. 

I also learned more about the significance of the photograph taken by Alfred Stieglitz, in collaboration with Duchamp. Since the work was never allowed to be viewed in the exhibition, as it was voted off by the jury (going against the rules of the gallery itself) it was viewed by the public for the first time in this photograph in the second issue of The Blind Man with some accompany articles that were backing up the work. Not only is the way the photo was taken important, the intimate close up, the eye-level, the tension made by the angle, the light from above lighting it like Buddha, but also the painting that it is infront of. The painting that it sits infront of is Hartley's 1913 painting 'The Warriors' which includes a form that is similar to the form of the fountain, the same form that is used as a frame for Hartley's painting 'Portrait of Berlin'.

Camfield also notes that it is ironic in many ways, including that it is a female-like form used for a male function, and that is is a urinal in an art gallery on a pedestal. It is ambiguous, questions authorship, potentially religious and sexual, and simple. 

The most interesting quote I pulled from this was something that Wood recollected was said by Walter - "a lovely form has been revealed, freed from it's functional purpose." I thought this was particularly interesting, as a key aspect of modernism is that form follows function. The fountain confuses this idea. 

Camfield also discusses how there was debate about the work that the subsided. Which is, to me, an example of emergent ideas being introduced in a non-linear way. It was re-emerged in the 1960s amongst new realism, minimal art, pop art, conceptual art and a continuation of readymade art. 

Loesberg interprets the 'scuplture' as unchronologically post-modern. He believes it challenges the idea of art and introduces the idea that art can go beyond what the artist intended.
He thinks it is important that Duchamp chose a urinal as the readymade object as it brings about the question as to whether a urinal is indecent when used in everyday life, or if it only becomes indecent when put in the context of an art gallery. A quote I thought was interesting was "a urinals connection with that element of our physicality seems to deny it the ability to be aesthetically appreciated".
Another quote I found really interesting was that, at the time, there was the belief that "a joke and art are mutually exclusive".
Loesberg also discusses the discussion the work created about whether or not it was art. Loesberg believes that art is only art if it is perceived to be so, and the recognition of the fountain as art was only important because of it's initial rejection.

Looking at relationships

An example of an artist that provides context to and shows what informed Duchamps work is Pablo Picasso.

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)

This painting shows abstraction and universality.

An example of an artist which shows the practices that followed Duchamps work, or was informed by his work, is Damien Hirst. 

The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991)