Marcel Duchamp's Fountain

It's safe to say that this is the most important toilet in art history. It was from this second-hand potty that conceptual art — in which the concept behind the work takes precedence over the thing itself — was born. Marcel Duchamp's 1917 urinal was one of the pieces he referred to as "readymades" — art produced from already existing objects. The final product has been likened to the veiled head of a classic Renaissance Madonna and to a seated Buddha. Who says a toilet can't be beautiful?

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