Stefan Banz: Marcel Duchamp: Richard Mutt’s Fountain

The legacy of Marcel Duchamp’s infamous sculpture explored in detail with new research

In 1917, the newly formed Society of Independent Artists received an unusual submission for its inaugural exhibit in New York: a porcelain urinal signed with the name R. Mutt. The Society’s board members agreed to accept it into the exhibition, but they decided at the last minute to omit the piece, entitled Fountain, from the final display. It was later revealed that the artist Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) had submitted the piece to the Society, of which he himself was a member. Today, the Fountain remains a symbol of antiestablishment creativity, questioning what does and does not constitute art and who has the authority to make that distinction.

This publication brings together an impressive amount of research as it considers the context of Duchamp’s piece and its continued legacy, while rejecting the recently mooted thesis that Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven had created the work.