Fountain is Marcel Duchamp’s 1917 artwork that presented a urinal as an art object under the name R. Mutt.
Duchamp submitted the porcelain urinal to the Society of Independent Artists exhibition in New York. The work was signed and dated “R. Mutt 1917,” but the exhibition organizers rejected it despite their stated policy of accepting entries from artists who paid the fee.
The original object was lost, and the surviving photographic record was made by Alfred Stieglitz. Duchamp’s use of a commercially manufactured object helped define the concept of the readymade, in which selection and context can become central to artistic meaning. “Fountain” is often discussed as a turning point in modern art, not as a traditionally carved sculpture.