Duchamp Readymades With Fountain Essay

Avant garde, when used to discuss art practices, generally connotes that which is new, innovative and often at odds with the traditional or pre-prescribed ideas of what art is or should be. Duchamp’s ready-mades with Fountain in particular, is by this (and most) definitions, a piece that comes from the modern, avant garde movement. Much of the work of of the modern, western, avant garde artists attempted to grapple with and break free of the accepted notions of art practice, and as well as attempts to redefine its meaning in the context of the modern world. As we see here with Duchamp’s work, and much of the avant garde artists that follow, their pieces become theoretical and intellectual rather than being about the ability of the artist to …show more content…
The simplicity of the object contrasts with the complexity of the ideas being presented. The work is art simply reduced down to its core ideas.

The create act is not performed by the artist alone, the viewer shapes, interprets and adds to the work by placing meaning onto it. The work becomes totally subjective and open to the interpretation of the viewer, giving the work endless interpretations. The viewer is able to participate in the creation and in some ways project upon the image what they want to see.

By choosing mundane objects that are part of the everyday vocabulary of the viewer Duchamp reframes its meaning, forcing the viewer to then reinterpret and examine the object in a new way, outside of it physical or aesthetic attributes. Most of these objects are ones that one would normally examine closely, but the context forces the viewer the viewer to interact with the object in way. He us uses verbal cues and the language of the art world to disturb and reframe, disturbing the already existing sign and