Marcel Duchamp's Multiple Iterations of 'Fountain' Highlighted in MoMA Retrospective

Marcel Duchamp's iconic 1917 urinal, 'Fountain,' has been recreated and reinterpreted multiple times, with key versions now featured in a Museum of Modern Art retrospective. In 1935, Duchamp crafted a three-inch miniature from papier-mâché for his 'Box in a Valise,' a portable retrospective containing 69 miniatures of his works, which required meticulous handcrafting rather than being a readymade. Ann Temkin, chief curator of paintings and sculpture at MoMA, noted this replica demanded significantly more time than the original. By 1950, when New York dealer Sidney Janis requested 'Fountain' for an exhibition on extreme modern art, the 1917 original was lost, leading Duchamp to have Janis purchase an old urinal from a Paris flea market, creating what co-curator Matthew Affron termed an 'alreadymade.' Duchamp, wary of repetition, embraced this variation. In 1963, he authorized a critic in Stockholm to recreate 'Fountain' using a restaurant's model, resulting in a sleeker, modern urinal. These iterations underscore Duchamp's evolving approach to his seminal work, blending traditional craftsmanship with conceptual innovation, all documented in the current MoMA show.