The piece I have selected is related to the Dada Movement that stems a step further from the Avant Garde of the modern era. The Dada Movement was influenced by the WWI, before WWII took hold. Due to the desire of expression, art was a key avenue in this period. The Dada movement opened the door of creativity, chance, and an individuals escape repelling from the madness and slaughter-house of war exposure.

This piece was completed by Marcel Duchamp in 1917 titled Fountain. It was intended more as a prank for an avant garde art show that was open to display all entries but the particular piece gained high levels of shock and did not receive positive reaction by some of his fellow avant garde peers and judges. Due to this reaction, somehow the piece did not get into the exhibition as it was said to have gotten misplaced and shortly after it completely disappeared. Now, the only form of this art piece has been replicas of Duchamp’s Fountain that can be found in art museums.

A neat story behind this art piece states, “Marcel Duchamp arrived in the United States less than two years prior to the creation of Fountain, and had become involved with Dada, an anti-rational, anti-art cultural movement, in New York City. Creation of Fountain began when, accompanied by artist Joseph Stella and art collector Walter Arensberg, he purchased a standard Bedfordshire model urinal from the J. L. Mott Iron Works, 118 Fifth Avenue. The artist brought the urinal to his studio at 33 West 67th Street, reoriented it to a position 90 degrees from its normal position of use, and wrote on it, “R. Mutt 1917″. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fountain_(Duchamp)