Public Controversy: The Role Of Found Objects In Art

In the second half of the twentieth century, artistic movements made pushes in order to move beyond the traditional gallery space, changing the terrain of displaying and making art. An artist’s body of work no longer needed to reside inside of a gallery or art collection, and artists became free to explore other ways of creating and displaying work. In this vein, Andy Goldsworthy works sculpturally with natural media, and leaves the sculptures within a particular environment, often expecting his work to decay quickly. Many times, the only evidence of any art he makes is the photographs taken during the process. By more traditional standards, art of this nature is entirely contradictory. What is the point of pieces of visual art that cannot

Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain People often ask what constitutes good art. Who decides whether or not a piece is art and whether it is good art or not? Marcel Duchamp challenged popular notions of his day about what art actually is. Duchamp, a French artist living in New York at the turn of the century, believed that it was up to the artist to determine what art is. Duchamp is most famous for a type of sculpture he created called “readymades”1. Readymades are ordinary functional household objects that have either been joined to other objects, or chosen to stand alone as sculpture. Examples of his readymades include a coat hanger nailed to the floor of his studio, a hat

Case Study: The use of assemblage and the found object in historical and contemporary art practice.

With works in every known medium, from every part of the world, throughout all points in history, exploring the vast collection of the Museum of Modern Art was an overwhelming experience. The objects in the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts are an important historical collection, reflecting the development of a number of art forms in Western Europe. The department's holdings covered sculpture in many sizes, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, jewelry, and tapestries. The gallery attracted my appreciation of the realistic qualities of the human body often portrayed in sculpture.

Art can be expressed in many forms but one of the best has got to be political art, as it expresses art in a relevant form for many to understand, it doesn’t require knowledge in history. It puts out a statement in a bold way so that people may better understand what is trying to be expressed. Many artists use art in topics like reproductive rights, equality, gun control, human rights, the environment and war to express desire for change. One of the most outspoken political artists is Barbara Kruger, who has had her work installed in many well-known museums. Kruger has become even more known because of her relevance using art to criticize well-known public figures like Kim Kardashian and George W. Bush, she has also been a proud supporter of reproductive rights. One of her most known works is “Your body is a battleground” which was printed in 1989 in her support for the “March for Women’s Lives”. To show the positive and negatives sides of the inner struggle, the good and the evil. She has a reputation of supporting feminism ideas but she hasn’t stopped there, she’s even had her work put on display in the Hirshhorn Museum. She has gotten the attention of The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times because of her distinctive contemporary works. The beauty of her art is that it relates to many, her art ranges from domestic violence to compulsive shopping and everything in-between, it is also really easy

9. On the internet, find a picture of Duchamp’s “The Fountain.” What do you think of this in terms of being art?

Making a public artwork can cause some controversy, everyone will judge the piece. It may also effect the city, depending on the message that the piece is trying to bring. There is a lot of cultural points of view that people have to look for, although not everyone will see the artwork the same. “Cultural point of view affects the meaning viewers construct for the artwork” (promt). For example, there is a Last Conquistador statue that is located at El Paso, Texas. This is a piece is a piece of artwork created by, John Houser. He created a man riding a horse, and most people knew who the man on the horse was. The man was called, Juan de Oñate, he was a Spanish leader that took and destroyed El Paso. With that being said, you can imagine how

Although mainly associated with painting, Michael Canning also works in the mediums of drawing, printmaking and object making. It might be more appropriate to refer to him as “an artist” rather than “a painter”, but according to him, he is first and foremost “a sculptor”, that is, “interested in the history of materials as much as the history of art” (Canning 2011, 4).

Marcel Duchamp was showing off one of his readymade sculptures at its finest. He was making a statement that an everyday object is also art. The fact that Duchamp chose the object and called it art was just another cause for rebuttal in the art world. Now, approximately one hundred years later, everyday objects are commonly accepted as art.

In Duchamp’s first readymade Bycicle Wheel (1913) we can see his use of readymade objects in which he took a bicycle wheel and a chair and put them together. These objects lose their significance as a chair and bicycle wheel because by choosing to put them together and as an artist calling it art, he believes that should be considered art. The significance of these objects changes from their original meaning into that of a work of art; either because the artist decided, because it was put in a gallery setting, because the critic decided, or because of the viewer giving the object meaning.

Marcel Duchamp’s, ‘Fountain’ {1917}, is a readymade installation which undermines the conventional practices of art making and display, challenging notions and rejecting the classical aesthetic. Marcel Duchamp {1887-1968}, was a French artist who broke down the boundaries between works of art and everyday objects. His mockery for conventional aesthetic standards led him to devise his famous ready-mades, proclaiming an artistic revolution. The term “ready-made” came to label mass- produced everyday objects taken out of their usual context and then becomes a work of art through the choice or assistance of the artist. ‘Fountain’, is the most infamous example of Duchamp’s ready-mades and was widely seen as an icon of twentieth-century art. The

Seeing such acclaimed galleries acknowledging how artists have worked symbolically with materials is a positive reflection on how this method of working has been utilised by artist, and highlights that an artwork’s medium can be just as important as its

Art is all around us. There are many different forms of art. It can be something created, captured, or it can be already existent. Not a single person is to say what makes something art because there is a different definition for everyone. However, there are a couple factors that come into mind whenever someone decides to declare something as art. In this essay I will be comparing and contrasting four different pieces of art. I will be discussing each art piece’s form, time period of creation, intention or purpose, and value. These four pieces of art are Michelangelo’s Pieta, Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, Mark Rothko’s No.61, and the “Oyster Dress” by Alexander McQueen. These works of art come in all different shapes and sizes but they are valued

Singer and entertainer, Andy Stewart once said, “The point with public art, I think, is that it helps people form a sense that the place they live in is unique, that there's something special about it.” Public art can influence our emotions, thoughts, and actions. The art that is created can be consider to be an inspiration, or disrespectful towards the community and towards critics. Public art can bring depth into something that is not considered to be worthy of talking.

In 1915 the concept of “readymade” art was introduced by Marcel Duchamp when he took an ordinary snow shovel and painted the title In advance of the broken arm. He had previously turned a wheel up-side down and attached it to a stool, creating a piece he called Bicycle wheel. This was also considered a “readymade.” A “readymade” by Duchamp is “an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist.” Duchamp produced many of these “readymades,” but it his readymade entitled Fountain that we will be discussing here. Duchamp’s Fountain originated from a urinal that he with two other friends purchased from a plumber, took to his studio, and turned it on its backside. He painted the pseudonym “R. Mutt” on