Willie Cole: Readymade Remix: New Approaches to Familiar Objects : San Antonio Museum of Art

Found objects, household items, and manufactured goods are often seen in art exhibitions today, but that was not always the case. In 1917, French artist Marcel Duchamp (under the pseudonym R. Mutt) infamously submitted a common urinal as a sculpture titled Fountain to the Society of Independent Artists in New York. The sculpture was rejected for not being “a work of art.” Duchamp’s presentation of an everyday, mass-produced, functional object became known as a “readymade.” His use of prefabricated materials privileged the artist’s ideas and choices, rather than technical skill or labor, and shifted an ordinary object into a new context and significance. Drawn from SAMA’s collection, the works in this gallery reframe the readymade to transform the familiar through acts such as mixing, deconstructing, and repeating. Pushing the readymade beyond Duchamp’s concept, these artists imbue their work with new and layered meanings that explore memory, culture, identity, spirituality, and personal and collective histories.  

Images courtesy of the San Antonia Museum of Art and Beth Devillier