The Art Works
Title: Fountain
Artist: Marcel Duchamp
Medium: Porcelain
Date: 1917 (replica 1964)
Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) introduced the idea of the readymade into art. The objects he used were found by him, rather than made. Here he has taken a porcelain urinal and placed it on its side, giving it the title ‘Fountain’. By doing this he was trying to deflate the pompous pretensions of the art world. His choice of a toilet was not coincidental – it was almost certainly chosen because it would cause offence. But he does also try to say something about the status of the artist. An artist, he said, is someone who is supposed to give us new ides about things, and they can do that by making us think about a mundane object in a different way – and that is what he does here. He also claimed that, as an artist, anything he did should be classified as art.
Title: An Oak Tree
Artist: Michael Craig-Martin
Medium: Glass and water
Date: 1973
Michael Craig-Martin (born 1941) is taking Duchamp’s ideas to their limit. An Oak Tree is actually made of a glass of water on a glass shelf high above eye-level. The similarities between the sculpture and an oak tree are negligible, but that is what the label in the museum tells us that it is. The work is also displayed with an interview with the artist explaining how and why it is an oak tree. Basically he is an artist, and, following Duchamp, art is whatever he says it is. He can do what he likes: if he wants to make an oak tree he can, and here he has. The fact that it doesn’t look like an oak tree is not important. But the difference between what it looks like and what we are told it is makes us question what art is about.
Title: Concert for Anarchy
Artist: Rebecca Horn
Medium: Painted wood, metal and electronic components
Date: 1990
Although the ‘medium’ of this work is described as ‘painted wood, metal and electronic components’ it is basically a modified piano hung upside down from the ceiling. At intervals of several minutes the piano appears to fall apart – the lid falling open and the keys jumping out from under the lid, with a surprising crash. After a few more minutes the lid closes slowly, the keys draw back in and the lid shuts, accompanied by clanging, discordant notes. There is a strongly dramatic sense to this work, both in its initial appearance and its subsequent behaviour.
The piano clearly does not behave as it should – a grand piano should stand on the floor, and can only properly be played by a skilled musician who would have spent years practising and learning music. This piano does not follow any of the rules – hence its title. Anarchy means that there is no law or order. This could be a good thing if people are well behaved and considerate, but more often it is used to imply that there is chaos and disorder. Before creating this work Rebecca Horn (born 1944) used the piano in a film set in a mental asylum, where it had served to illustrate the disorder of the patients’ minds.
Visit the Glossary for words in bold.
