"In 1913, when Igor Stravinsky premiered his orchestral work The Rite of Spring at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Parisian audiences were so incensed by the discordant score that a riot broke out. Four years later, New Yorkers were only slightly more genteel toward French artist Marcel Duchamp's submission of a ready-made upside-down urinal autographed by the fictitious creator "R. Mutt" to the inaugural exhibition of New York's Society of Independent Artists."
"A symphonic paean to pagan energy and a urinal may seem disparate in intention, but both Stravinsky and Duchamp's works expressed the radicalism of the early 20th-century avant-garde, questioning certainties and upending values - to paraphrase Karl Marx, making all that is solid melt into air. For Duchamp, "Fountain" wasn't just a provocation, but also a philosophical comment about the nature of art itself: that a prosaic object can be elevated by framing alone."
The 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring provoked a riot in Paris because audiences were incensed by the discordant score. Four years later Marcel Duchamp submitted an upside-down urinal signed "R. Mutt" as a ready-made, challenging conventional definitions of art. Both works exemplified early 20th-century avant-garde radicalism by questioning certainties and reframing ordinary objects and sounds as art. Duchamp presented "Fountain" as a philosophical claim that a prosaic object can be elevated by framing. The avant-garde suggested art could become an immersive environment. By 2016 Maurizio Cattelan created "America," an 18-carat gold toilet auctioned at Sotheby's.
Read at Hyperallergic
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