I am taking up the course HUMAART or human art this term. I am learning a lot of things. One of which is that art is undefined and that art is relative. What I regard as art may not be art for someone else. This is because there are many factors that mediate our gaze such as education, religion, social class and the like.
Let me share to you a work by Duchamp called, Fountain. He considered it art. I don't know if you'll consider it art too. In 1917, he turned a urinal upside down and signed on the bottom part it with the text, "R. Mutt". People are not really sure if that came from the German word, "Armut" meaning poverty. Duchamp submitted it for an art exhibition but it was rejected. It was only in 2004 that the Fountain was noticed and art historians and critics declared that it was the most influential sculpture of the 20th century. I don't really know how to interpret the toilet but it peaked my interest because it's unique and so I researched an art historian's interpretation. He said that the upside down urinal looks like a renaissance madonna wearing a veil, a seated buddha or a sclupture of an erotic form. Haha! How can that be a structure of an erotic form? I don't really know. What are your interpretations of the fountain by Duchamp?
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