The Fountain Art Reflection

Last semester, in a Gen Ed course focussing on controversy in modern art, I learned about a French Artist Marcel Duchamp and his controversial style of producing art. Our class discussed his famous piece The Fountain, which was simply a urinal written on by Duchamp and submitted to an exhibition. I learned that Duchamp was an artist who was a pioneer in redefining the various mediums of art that he worked in. With this background interest in Duchamp, I sought to look through his collections when visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art. While in Duchamp’s exhibit, I enjoyed looking at his interesting pieces made out of commonplace items such as a bicycle wheel, but what really caught my intrigue was his painting titled Nude Descending a Staircase [No. 2]. The piece was full of countless shapes and lines, yet somehow did not seem cluttered. The shapes seemed to flow into each other, yet I found it difficult to find the nude figure said to be descending stairs. It took me a while to start to see the repeating shapes and make out the main structure of the body. This painting was both beautiful at first glance, and complex enough to keep my attention for what seemed like 15 minutes. Even given the extensive time taking apart this piece with my eyes, I still felt I was missing something. With this in mind, I felt researching this piece specifically would be beneficial to my understanding and appreciation of the piece. Researching into the artist of the piece, Marcel Duchamp,