What type of object did Marcel Duchamp use for his Fountain?

Marcel Duchamp used a porcelain urinal for Fountain.

Created in 1917, Fountain was a “readymade”: an ordinary manufactured object presented as art through the artist’s choice and its new setting. Duchamp rotated the urinal from its normal position, signed it “R. Mutt,” and submitted it anonymously to the Society of Independent Artists exhibition in New York.

The work caused controversy because Duchamp had not traditionally sculpted the object by hand. Although the society advertised that every submitted work would be accepted, Fountain was hidden from the exhibition rather than displayed. Photographer Alfred Stieglitz later photographed it, and the image became the main record of the lost original.

A common mix-up is calling the object a toilet. More precisely, it was a wall-mounted urinal, a type of plumbing fixture designed for urination. The piece helped establish conceptual art by shifting attention from craftsmanship and beauty toward ideas, context, and the artist’s act of selection. Replicas authorized by Duchamp now appear in major museums.