Eva and Franco Mattes stole more than a few famous art pieces from major museums all over the world in the mid-90s. They lifted small art-parts: a peeled off manufacturer’s label from Jeff Koons’ basketball aquarium, some threads from an Andy Warhol, a porcelain chip from a Marcel Duchamp “Fountain” urinal, etc. Read more »
With the 1917 original “smashed and trashed,” the editions and replicas of the ’50s and ’60s accounted for at museums and private collection of rich guys, there are some “rogue” R. Mutt urinals out there. Duchamp’s Dadaist “Fountain,” once replicated and peddled by dealer Arturo Schwarz, have popped up in Basel and Buenos Aires, and the artist’s estate is calling bullshit. Read more »
While most artists are inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s urinals, building them bigger or creating collections of museum-quality bathroom fixtures, Ji Lee reworks the Readymade artist’s Bicycle Wheel for Duchamp Reloaded:
In 1913, Marcel Duchamp took found objects from the streets and placed them in museums. 96 years later, if Duchamp were alive, he may want to do the very opposite.
On Saturday, Mary Boone Gallery in Chelsea opens a group show featuring work by three artists: Mike Kelley, Terence Koh, and Jeff Koons. Koh, who has made use of chocolate, semen, blood and vomit in past works, has created something decidedly more permanent: a 21-foot long porcelain urinal, already smashed and glued back together to save any would-be vandals Dadaists the hassle. No word on what sort of work or balloonery Koons and Kelley will show. The show, curated by Javier Peres, opens April 4th and will be on view at 541 West 24th Street through May 16th.
Photo by Fine Art Ship
With a plunging art market and an economy in the shitter, The Art Museum Toilet Museum of Art chose a good time to launch their new protesty website that was “founded in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp,” according to the official press release. Artmuseumtoilet.org features an impressive “collection of images of toilets taken at various art museums from around the world.” Some of the most venerable institutions are included, from the Met to the Kyoto National Museum—which does has some really impressive urinals. But design aesthetics are not the focus, it has more to do with the general assholiness of the art world and pompous museum culture:
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