Fall Pause

The journal The Blind Man provides an important context for “The Fountain;” in a sense, we might not be discussing this piece if it weren't for the journal. While The Fountain was supposed to be exhibited by the Society of Independents, they quickly rejected it – and it was apparently destroyed (replicas were later “made” and collected by many museums but not the “original”). So, few people got to see the actual piece. Instead they read about it in the newspaper, saw Stieglitz' photo, and learned about it from the magazine. This is a primary historical source. What can you infer about the overall ethos of this time, and the things that interest the poems and painters represented in this limited edition magazine (or its implied audience) edited in NYC by Duchamp?

1. What were/are some of the issues surrounding Duchamp's “The Fountain”?
   1. (What were the issues in 1917? why was it rejected? and now?)
2. What happens when writers/artists set out to make work that deliberately challenges the rules/conventions/expectations for value?
3. What are some of the values that they challenged?
4. (What connections do you see with value in Cage's 4'33” or Rupi Kaur's Instagram poems? )
5. How would you connect this with your reading of Barbara Herrnstein Smith's “Value/Evaluation”?

Duchamp, readymades, and institutional critique. The Art Assignment, PBS Digital Studios () Art or Prank and Duchamp's Fountain Kahn video.

1. What is/was “The Blind Man”?
2. What relationship do you perceive between the material on Duchamp's “The Fountain” and the writing in the magazine, especially the poetry? What kind of poetry would you expect to find alongside such art?

“The Blind Man”: (esp. pp 4-6, 8) via Perusall

pick up from last class

A. “Authorship” and value

1. Why are some pieces of art or poetry not “signed”? (See also pieces that are “initialed”)
2. What is the significance of the “anonymity” of R Mutt?
3. What is the significance of the anonymous “Letter from a Mother”? link?
4. How would this discussion change if we agreed Duchamp should not be credited with the Fountain? (See Stieglitz note recommending a ban on “author/artist” credits for works:(pg 15) i.e. that all art should be evaluated anonymously.
5. What do you make of the evidence that Duchamp may not be the “maker” of the Fountain? And why is the art world reluctant to withdraw credit? And what does it mean to argue over the artist who created a “readymade”?

B. Good Modernist Poetry

1. In what ways do the poems in this journal also reflect challenges to some conventional ideas of good poetry?
2. See esp. these three poems. How does each challenge a “convention” or a reader's expectation?
   1. Bob Brown “Eyes on the Half Shell” link
   2. Charles Duncan “Third Dimension” link
   3. Charles DeMuth “For Richard Mutt” link
   4. Mina Loy, “O'Marcel” link
3. Compare these to another Modernist poem by Elsa Von Freytag Loringhoven.

We may not have time, but it would be interesting to consider how Marcel Duchamp's own poems relate to his art. And what is with these visual artists and composers who also write poetry? (See: SurCensure. )