 This sculpture, titled “Fountain”, was one of Marcel Duchamp’s “readymades”, or every day object transformed into art (photo taken by Alfred Stieglitz, 1917). Duchamp took an ordinary urinal, rotated it, and signed it with the pseudonym “R. Mutt.” According to Duchamp, art is simply anything that an artist claims it to be. However, this piece was denied entry to the Society of Independent Artists exhibit in 1917.
Duchamp stated that his artwork reflected his sense of irony, humor, and ambiguity. This third characteristic is imperative when analyzing this sculpture with an absurdist’s lens. Despite a urinal’s apparent singular function, Duchamp found another with this sculpture. By doing so, Duchamp showed that we, as humans, may not be able to understand the complexity of such seemingly simple objects. There are an infinite amount of uses for a urinal, but our views are confined to only the most obvious of functions.
Furthermore, the fact that Duchamp’s sculpture was denied from the Society of Independent Artists exhibit further exemplified it as absurdist art. According to philosophy-index.com, a key view of absurdism is that the world is constantly hostile towards humanity. Therefore, since the artwork that Duchamp had created was unappreciated and ridiculed, it was as if the world was being cruel towards him.
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