Duchamp, Dewey, and a Fountain of Knowledge

Abstract

Marcel Duchamp's Fountain is one of most enigmatic icons of past century. The image of rotated urinal with bathroom tag 'R. Mutt' was originally submitted to exhibition of American Independents Society exhibition in 1917. The show claimed to be jury free, a bait Duchamp couldn't resist. When he sent in anonymous readymade by R. Mutt and it was rejected, Duchamp couldn't have anticipated historical legacy he put in motion. At about same time John Dewey was giving shape to his theory of knowledge at Teachers College, Columbia University. For Dewey, readymade knowledge was a fallacy, as it was of reflective intelligence that made ideas and facts possible. Part of this transactional process was later embraced by aesthetic experience where Dewey clearly privileged viewer as much as maker as source of knowledge. Duchamp liked that idea as well. He affirmed that the creative is not performed by artist alone; spectator brings work in contact with external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contributions to creative act (cited in Stiles & Selz, 1996, p. 819). In constructing a theory of knowledge and a theory of art assemblage of facts and experiences relies on procedures that are logical and rigorous, but also curious and opportunistic. As provisional statements, theories are formed by historical accretion and revision. Consider many theoretical positions Fountain assumed from time it was not exhibited in 1917. Although Duchamp claimed aesthetic indifference, early responses couldn't resist a visual form that was revered by one fan for its chaste simplicity as a lovely Buddha (Camfield, 1989, p. 40). References to sexual ambiguity owe a debt to Alfred Steiglitz's dramatic androgynous icon with rounded recess and stout spout. When readymade replicas made by Duchamp arrived on scene in 1950s, art debate extended interpretive frame beyond object, and a new critical sense brought artist renewed pop status. The Fountain was drafted into service for socio-political purposes, conceptual reasons, and as an emblem of institutional theory in hands of Dickie. Some even viewed it as a revelation of occult knowledge, while for others it referenced nonEuclidean time-space relationships that suggested an underlying universal aesthetic (Camfield, 1989). As a source of knowledge, how reliable is visual image? Are variable views of Fountain an indication of strength or weakness of ascribing meaning to images and objects? While many remain skeptical about its trustworthiness as data, image continues to offer plausible reasons for `re-searching' and thus possibility of theory construction. Art theorists certainly put image to test. The new interest in (auto)biographical image incorporates everything from Vasari-like perspective, Freudian alter ego, Nochlin revision, and genre bending of Gerhard Richter. …