A Comparison Of Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, And The Physical Impossibility Of Art

Perfection can cause many bad things, but the most important is that it changes people in a bad way, people lose their identity, they are not happy anymore. They don’t feel they are doing well in off. Perfection should be everyone being themselves sharing and enjoying

The sublime is a feature present in many art works. It is an aesthetics category that, unlike other categories such as beauty or the picturesque, examines great and awe-inspiring phenomena. The sublime is an aesthetic notion that describes the emotions of awe that people experience when they encounter the immense, powerful, and even terrifying forces of the natural world. Like all aesthetic notions, the sublime produces various emotions with the persons viewing a piece of art. Moreover, many works of art that depict industrial landscapes or scenes rely upon the sublime to communicate to the viewer the sublime nature of modern industry. Indeed, artistic depictions of technology in industrial paintings reflection aesthetic concept of sublime by the scale and focal point in paintings.

In a world that has become immune to accepting all types of art, Marya Mannes believes we have lost our standards and ability to identify something as “good” or “bad”. In her essay, “How Do You Know It’s Good”, she discusses society’s tendency to accept everything out of fear of wrongly labelling something as being good or bad. She touches on various criteria to judge art, such as the artist’s purpose, skill and craftsmanship, originality, timelessness, as well as unity within a piece rather than chaos. She says that an individual must decide if something is good “on the basis of instinct, experience, and association” (Mannes). I believe that by using standards and the process of association, we will be able to judge what makes an art piece good in comparison to others. However, Mannes forces me to consider the difference between what may be appealing versus what is actually good, and when deciding which art we should accept, which is truly more important. I believe that “good” and “bad” are two ends of a large, subjective spectrum of grey area. It is possible for a piece of art to be good in some areas and bad in others, and if something does not live up to all of our standards, it does not necessarily mean it should be dismissed. Thus, I believe my personal standards for judging art are based on which my standards are largely based on the personal reaction evoked from a piece of art. Though I agree with Mannes’ standards to an extent, I believe that certain standards, such as evoking a personal response, can be more telling of if a piece of art is good as opposed to its timelessness, or the level of experience of an artist in his/her craft.

However, even this image of perfection (beautifully visualised in that crisp whiteness and brilliant green) is imperfect - and, even more disturbingly, Foulcher argues that all ideal conceptions are fallible, in an insistent repetition:

Society experienced to achieve perfection in many ways, almost since the beginning of humanity, and is almost impossible so many attempts fail and cause severe consequences. In “the perfect match” by Ken Liu, short story and “Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut, short story. Perfection is people ignoring what really matter. People are not unique anymore because society is limiting with an idea of what is not accepted or normal is not perfect. Societies’ desire of perfection makes people go desperate and feel alone.

For centuries, people’s aesthetic value has been influenced by Rome's perfectionism, so do I. I used to think that artworks that make people feel appreciated are just equivalent to visual appreciation and satisfaction. However, after observing the painting and researching sources of this pieces of art I realized that an excellent artwork needs to cover all aspect requirements. For instance, an excellent artwork needs to contain a high operation of art skills as well as art knowledge in order to persuade audience. In addition, to qualify as a great artwork it has to create a substantial amount of activity in the audience’s mind or heart. When I look at an artwork I always try to figure out what is the artwork's message or what the artist is trying to communicate, to convey. Overall, I think a good artwork needs include some of the elements and principles of the language of art as well as the structure they give to be able to successfully communicate an idea.

Perfection is always what people seem to strive for, but what Yao mentions in her article

One of the main criticisms the Adorno and Horkheimer had of the art produced within the culture industry was that everything produced was made to look different but in actuality everything produced was identical (Adorno and Horkheimer). Adorno and Horkheimer claim that “under monopoly all mass culture is identical” (Adorno and Horkheimer) this concept can be seen and applied to

A man by the name of Marcel Duchamp came to the United States due to his creation of the "Fountain". The art piece had become an anti-rational, anti-art cultural movement in New York. He purchased the fountain from J. L. Molt Iron Works and brought it to his studio re-orientating it 90° from its original position of use and wrote on it, "R. Mutt

Non-conformist to traditional art forms, Conceptualism challenges the viewer to delve into the mindset of the artist. It is often seen as multidimensional as it forces the audience to decipher the artists intentions. This art movement has been completely rejecting the standard ideas of art since the mid-1960’s. Since then, many artists have made a name for themselves by self-consciously expanding the boundaries of art. Many of these artists have said they’ve linked their work to artist Marcel Duchamp.

“I felt trapped. I was too complete. I was too perfect” (173), says the narrator in Chuck Palahniuk’s postmodern novel, Fight Club. After perfection is reached there is nothing to then strive for. The only way life can go after being too perfect is down. By living a life dedicated to perfection, things that are just satisfactory become obsolete and happiness becomes harder to find due to the lack of a higher level of fulfilment. Society, now more than ever, is breeding perfectionists that are not happy unless perfection is achieved. This is because society now idolizes perfection from the start of life and pushes it all throughout.

Perfection is a memory now and I have recognized the emptiness it portrayed in my life

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. The clock ticked as time was running out for her to perform her floor exercise. The pressure to perform the perfect routine was high. She completed to the best of her ability, but failed to meet perfection. In the Olympic Games, perfection is symbolized by the gold medal. She is an excellent gymnast that had trained for years, but she could not reach perfection on the floor exercises as expected by society. Society has always had those who judge and criticize based on what others flaunt. Perfection to society in the Olympics is the highest degree of proficiency, skill, and excellence. Perfection is not something to be sought after as it establishes unreasonable standards, creates an obsession, and can create deeper insecurities.

Whether Mr. Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view—created a new thought for that object.

This piece is simply a men’s urinal that the artist found to be art. This piece is a staple of twentieth century art. This piece was first produced in 1917. Marcel Duchamp submitted this piece of art to gallery to make a statement. At the time he was “testing the commitment of the new American Society to freedom of expression and its tolerance of new conceptions of art” (tate.org). Marcel Duchamp wanted to redefine what the world saw as art, but also what artists saw as art. He wanted to challenge what people defined as art. Duchamp actually chose “ a urinal in part because he thought it would have the least chance of being liked” (tate.org). I think Duchamp was trying to show that art is all around us, but also that art should not be taken too seriously. Sometimes people try to overcomplicate art and make it something that it is not, and I think that is something that Marcel Duchamp really wanted to portray this through this piece. Marcel Duchamp brought about the “questioning of the structures of belief and value associated with the concept of art” (tate.org). This piece brought was not only created in a different time period and out of different materials, but also its intention was nothing like any of the other four