Fountain, Ready-Mades, and Modern Art

Marcel Duchamp, a Cubist and a founder of the Dadaist movement, was a man of unique vision. Appalled by the war and conventional culture's view of war as an honorable and heroic venture, Duchamp attacked symbols of classical and modern culture through vicious parody and satire. This work, one of the first "Ready-Made" sculptures, was dubbed Fountain (not "R. Mutt," contrary to popular belief) in a satire of what makes a Fountain? It is in this period that the titles of artistic works became key to understanding the messages that the artists were trying to send. Without the title Fountain urging the viewer to contrast what he or she sees with the conventional idea of a fountain and thus satirizing the idea of classical, this work is meaningless. Dadism is a challenge to viewers to see the world in a new way, both in art and in the macrocosm of war and peace.