The story of Marcel Duchamp's Fountain. A signed urinal that changed art forever. Duchamp today is known as the inventor of the readymade and conceptual art, but in 1917, his ideas were just too radical for much of the world to stomach. Marcel Duchamp’s attitude towards art was born out of a need for total freedom. Not just artistic freedom, but freedom of thought. Freedom of ideas. Freedom from tradition. He was looking for a new attitude, a new state of mind, towards art and towards life. He relentlessly unbound himself from convention and categories, even from art movements and other artists. He rejected boundaries unlike any artist before him. You can like or hate Duchamp, but you can't ignore him.
Credits and References: The writings and interviews of Calvin Tomkins, Francis Naumann, William Camfield, and Thierry de Duve, Art Forum, New Yorker, New York Times, Dialogues With Marcel Duchamp by Pierre Cabanne.