A new interpretation of the reception and legacy of Marcel Duchamp’s controversial Fountain.

In 1917, Marcel Duchamp sent a “telegram” in the form of a urinal signed “R. Mutt.” When it arrived at its destination forty years later, it was both celebrated and vilified for proclaiming that anything could be art; from, that moment on, the entire Western art world was reconfigured as “Post-Duchamp.”

This new work from celebrated art historian and philosopher, Thierry de Duve, marks the completion of his decades long effort to understand how Duchamp’s Fountain marked a turning point in art history and to resolve the unprecedented problems this piece poses for philosophical aesthetics. Beyond shedding new light on the piece’s initial reception and correcting certain historical errors, Le télégramme de Duchamp offers a bold interpretation of Fountain. Duve argues that Duchamp’s urinal heralded the demise of the fine arts system and the advent of what he terms the system of “art in general." He further asserts, however, that this system did not originate in the 1960s but can be traced back to the 1880s. Duve’s new book, therefore, shows that Duchamp was neither the creator nor agent of this new system, but rather its brilliant messenger.