“A lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.”
“They say any artist paying six dollars may exhibit
Mr. Richard Mutt [= Duchamp himself; an inscription written by Duchamp] sent in a fountain. Without discussion this article disappeared and never was exhibited.
What were the grounds for refusing Mr. Mutt fountain:
1. Some contented it was immoral, vulgar.
2. Others, it was plagiarism, a plain piece of plumbing.
Now, Mr. Mutt fountain is not immoral, that is absurd, no more than a bit tube is immoral. It is a fixture that you see every day in plumber’s show windows.
Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made this fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that's its useful significance disappeared under the new title ['The Richard Mutt Case'] and point of view – created a new thought for that object.
As for plumbing, that is absurd. The only works of art America has given are her plumbing and her bridges.”
quote, 1917
Quote in: Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art, – a source-book of Artist's writings, ed. Kristine Stiles / Peter Selz, University of California Press, London, England, 1996, p. 817
Duchamp's core quote / his own written comment on his artwork 'Fountain (Duchamp)': The Richard Mutt Case, Marcel Duchamp, ‘Blind Man’, New York, 1917: 5
1915 - 1925
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Marcel Duchamp 66
French painter and sculptor 1887–1968Related quotes
“Honestly, sometimes you'd rather be a dog. A mutt doesn't torture itself with thinking.”
Part I, Ch.5 - p.37
The Shepherd's Hut (2018)
Question, Is it true that Marcel Duchamp invented the name “mobile” for your work?
1950s - 1960s, interview with Alexander Calder', (1962)
As cited in: Thomas Doherty, Thomas Patrick Doherty (2013) Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture. p. 207
Army–McCarthy hearings (9 June 1954)
From "Half a Slap and Half a Boost" in American Economist (20 September 1912)
As quoted in Plain Mr. Jinnah : Selections from Quaid-e-Azam's Correspondence (1976)
“Some people drink from the fountain of knowledge, others just gargle. ”