The Fountain 1917
The story of the most important creation of the 20th century
Monday, 2 April 1917. In New York, three well-dressed youngish men leave a smart duplex apartment at 33 West 67th Street and head out into the city. A Frenchman in the middle, flanked by his two stockier American friends, walked towards Central Park and down towards Columbus Circle. The shorter of the Frenchman’s two friends is Walter Arsenberg and the other, Joseph Stella. They notice their friend is missing, only to find him standing on the other side of the street, looking upwards at an enormous concrete slice of cheese. The Flatiron Building captivated the French artist. His reverie is broken by a shout from Arsenberg. United again, the three make their way south down Fifth Avenue. They arrive at their destination: 118 Fifth Avenue, the retail premises of J.L.Mott Iron Work, a plumbing specialist. Inside, Arsenberg and Stella stifle giggles while their companion ferrets around among the bathrooms and door handles. After a few minutes, he calls the store assistant over and points to an unexceptional, flat-backed, white porcelain urinal. Joined again by his friends, the group are informed by a wary store assistant that the model of urinal in question is a Bedfordshire. The Frenchman nods, Stella smirks and Arsenberg, with an exuberant slap to the assistant’s back, says he’ll buy it. And that is how Marcel Duchamp redefined Modern Art.