Duchamp and the iPhone

There was an iPhone app called I am Rich for sale at 999.9$ which was withdrawn by Apple it simply displayed a multifaceted ruby . Apple’s reaction is similar to the reaction of the curators of the 1913 Armoury Exhibition.

The Armoury curators claimed they would exhibit any artist who had paid the entrance fee of 5$ but then went on to withdraw Duchamp’s Fountain, despite the fact he’d paid the entrance fee.

I’m sure you can see the connection - both I am Rich and Fountain appear on face value to have no artistic value but they have been given some measure of artistic value as indicated by thier price. I am Rich by a developer, Fountain by an artist…..which begs the questions what’s the difference between the developer and artist ? It could be argued there’s none…..

What caused the change Armory's curators change of heart? The same question could be asked of the folks at Apple…

Duchamp’s submission went onto to be voted, in the Independent newspaper’s poll of 500 UK art ‘experts’, to be the most influential work of art of the twentieth century. A Replica of Fountain was sold by Sotheby’s to Dimitri Daskalopoulos, a Greek collector, for $1,762,500. So maybe Apple are sitting on gold mine !

I never really ‘got’ it why Duchamp’s piece was so admired by so many ‘experts’ however having just done an essay comparing: Pollock –Modernism , Warhol – Pop Art and Morris – Minimalism. I can see the hand or at least the ideas of Duchamp his assisted readymades clearly inspired Warhol; he was a great supporter of Pollock; Morris’s geometrical shapes can be seen to be readymades.

Duchamp explored the idea of who is the author or artist ? What is the work or the piece of art ? What do we look for or expect of piece of art ? He challenged all these questions.

His Fountain broke the rules paving the way for Postmodernism where anything is art if ‘I’ the ‘artist’ say it’s ‘art’

Duchamp redefined what art was and who artist were in doing so broke Art free of medium specificity - freeing Art to be whatever the Artist thought Art to be.

It’s Art as I the Artist say it’s Art!