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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 3 page essay that answers the prompt question of whether this famous work from the Dada movement should be considered "art." Bibliography lists 2 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khdada2.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
French artist Marcel Duchamp were all present (Gayford). After their lunch, the three men went to the J.L. Mott Ironworks, a plumbing supply business located on Fifth Avenue in New
York City, where Duchamp purchased a ceramic urinal, which he rotated 90 degrees, so that it rested on its back. He subsequently signed it "R. Mutt 1917," thereby starting its
new life as a piece of sculpture, which Duchamp entitled "Fountain" (Gayford). This is the origin of one of the most "influential art works of the 20th century," which began
as a "highly successful practical joke" (Gayford). Whether or not one regards "Fountain" as a urinal or a work of art depends, at least to a certain extent, as
to how one perceives its context, which is within the history of the Dadaist movement, which grew out of the artistic and intellectual confusion that both preceded and followed World
War I. After initially producing examples of both Impressionism and Cubism, Duchamp "rejected all painting because it was made for the eye, not the mind" (Trachtman 68). After the carnage
of WWI, Europe, and the world in general, was disillusioned with the traditional paradigms of society. Dadaism was an absurdist art movement that evolved in reaction to the butchery and
death of the Great War. As art historian Leah Dickerman of the National Gallery explains, "Dada wished to replace the logical nonsense" of the rationalizations for WWI with the
"illogical nonsense" of the Dadaist artists (Trachtman 68). Calling a urinal "art" made as much sense as the rhetoric of politicians, which was proclaimed from all participating countries, and succeeded
in persuading their various constituents to support the First World War. Government officials "of all stripes" had loudly asserted that WWI was a "noble cause" and this was argued by
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