Duchamp's most famous urinal on view in Seoul

A 1950 replica of Marcel Duchamp's 1917 work "Fountain" is currently on view at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul. This is the first example of readymade and considered as the artwork which changed the course of art history by challenging the concept of what is art. Courtesy of MMCA

By Kwon Mee-yoo

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) is an artist who changed the course of art history by challenging the concept of what is art.

About 100 years ago in 1917, he submitted a urinal ― purchased from a hardware store and signed with his pseudonym "R. Mutt" ― under the title of "Fountain" to an exhibition organized by the Society of Independent Artists in New York, which claimed it would accept any work of art as long as an application fee is paid. However, "Fountain" was considered not art and rejected from the exhibit, igniting a debate over the most intellectually challenging art piece of the 20th century.

Despite its impact on modern art, the original 1917 "Fountain" is documented in just a few photographs. "The original urinal was simply discarded or disappeared around 1919. It is a problem, or destiny, of early Duchamp works as he did not attach value, rarity or importance to any of them," Matthew Affron, the Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA), which houses the largest collection of Duchamp's art with a dedicated Duchamp Room, said during a press preview of "The Essential Duchamp" at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, Thursday.

The "Fountain" on display at the Seoul museum is a full-size replica created ― or purchased from a flea market ― in 1950 for an exhibition and signed "R. Mutt" again by Duchamp. It is one of the earliest replicas of "Fountain" in existence.

"Duchamp's public presence was increasing in the 1950s and 60s and there was a demand for his earlier works for exhibitions. He created further twists on the idea of art about the original, the first and the valuable ones (by producing replicas). He even said he was happy to sign many replicas because the more he signed, the more objects were devalued," Affron said.

A visitor looks at Marcel Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" on view at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul. Courtesy of MMCA

Largest Duchamp exhibit in Asia

"The Essential Duchamp," held in cooperation with the PMA on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Duchamp's death, features around 150 paintings, photographs, objects and drawings by the revolutionary artist and the largest retrospective on him in Asia.

The French-American artist displaced ordinary ideas about value of original art, which was a fundamental idea in the art world, by introducing the concept of readymade, referring to manufactured objects presented in a different context.

"Marcel Duchamp continues to fascinate artists and scholars in our own time. We cannot understand much of contemporary art without understanding Duchamp himself and his art," said Timothy Rub, director of the PMA.

Though Duchamp challenged traditional concepts of art by bringing in the idea of readymade, in which he chose and signed mass-produced objects to shake up the conventional norms of artistic creation, he was a talented painter who experimented with Post-Impressionist and Cubist styles.

In this chronologically organized exhibit, Duchamp's early paintings show the artist's interest in mechanistic motion.

Before "Fountain," Duchamp had another controversial work rejected from an exhibition ― "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" (1912). He wrote the title of this Cubist piece on the painting when he submitted it to the Cubist Salon des Independants, but the organizers requested to remove the title from the painting. Instead, Duchamp withdrew the painting from the exhibition.

"The Essential Duchamp," co-hosted by the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, highlights Marcel Duchamp's female persona Rrose Selavy. Courtesy of MMCA

The exhibit also sheds light on Duchamp's less-known female persona Rrose Selavy. Duchamp crossed the boundaries of gender and sexuality by cross-dressing as Selavy and being photographed by Man Ray.

"Duchamp often said he almost disappeared behind his notorious works ― Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 and Fountain ― from the impact of public opinion. He instinctively shied away from the public and the award system of the art world that would corrupt him at least in his early days. He used pseudonyms or alternative personas to detach himself from the ordinary circus of the art world until he became an international figure in the 1950s," Affron said.

The MMCA proudly presents one of its most expensive and most treasured possessions at this exhibit ― a 1941 edition of "Box in a Valise (From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Selavy)" ― along with its red-colored sibling from the PMA.

A 1941 edition of Marcel Duchamp's "Box in a Valise (From or by Marcel Duchamp or Rrose Selavy)" from the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's collection is on view at "The Essential Duchamp" exhibit. Yonhap

"Box in a Valise" is a collection of miniature reproductions of Duchamp's works in a carrying case. "I thought of the idea of the box in which all my works would be mounted like a small museum, a portable museum, so to speak, and here it is in this valise," Duchamp once said.

For the first time, the box is exhibited fully unfolded, revealing miniature replicas of "Fountain," "The Large Glass" and his paintings and drawings.

Duchamp had a desire to gather his art in one place and urged his patrons and collectors to donate his work to a designated institution ― the PMA ― and even supervised installation of "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass)" at the museum, which is now on permanent view there.

Two of Duchamp's major works, including "The Large Glass" and his last major piece "Etant donnes," could not travel outside the Philadelphia museum, so this traveling exhibition features video installations to give a peek of the pieces.

"Etant donnes is the final major artwork in Duchamp's career. He often used the idea of eroticism and sexuality in his works and this piece is full of complex philosophical and artistic notions. One way to think about the work is the nude figure in relation to Renaissance art. It also is an attempt to make an experience for museum visitors to disturb their usual behaviors at a museum," Affron explained.

The exhibit runs until April 7.