,
Fountain, 1917. Photograph by
Alfred Stieglitz (Note: Some art historians consider only the un-altered manufactured objects to be readymades. This list includes the pieces he altered or constructed.) •
Bottle Rack (also called
Bottle Dryer or
Hedgehog) (
Egouttoir or
Porte-bouteilles or
Hérisson), 1914. A galvanized iron bottle drying rack that Duchamp bought in 1914 as an "already made" sculpture, but it gathered dust in the corner of his Paris studio because the idea of "readymade" had not yet been born. Two years later, through correspondence from New York with his sister,
Suzanne Duchamp, in France he intended to make it a readymade by asking her to paint on it "(from) Marcel Duchamp". However, Suzanne, who was looking after his Paris studio, had already disposed of it. •
In Advance of the Broken Arm (En prévision du bras cassé), 1915.
Snow shovel on which Duchamp carefully painted its title. The first piece the artist called a "readymade". New to America, Duchamp had never seen a snow shovel not manufactured in France. With fellow Frenchman
Jean Crotti he purchased it from a stack of them, took it to their shared studio, painted the title and "from Marcel Duchamp 1915" on it, and hung it from a wire in the studio. It was eventually lost. Many years later, a replica of the piece is said to have been used to move snow off the sidewalks of Chicago. •
Pulled at 4 pins, 1915. An unpainted chimney ventilator that turns in the wind. The title is a literal translation of the French phrase, "tiré à quatre épingles", roughly equivalent to the English phrase "dressed to the nines". Duchamp liked that the literal translation meant nothing in English and had no relation to the object. •
Comb (Peigne), 1916. Steel dog grooming comb inscribed along the edge in white, "''3 ou 4 gouttes de hauteur n'ont rien a faire avec la sauvagerie; M.D. Feb. 17 1916 11 a.m.''" ("Three or Four Drops of Height [or Haughtiness] Have Nothing to Do with Savagery.") • ''Traveller's Folding Item
(...pliant,... de voyage)'', 1916. Underwood Typewriter cover. •
Fountain, 1917. Porcelain urinal inscribed "R. Mutt 1917". The board of the 1917
Society of Independent Artists exhibit, of which Duchamp was a director, after much debate about whether
Fountain was or was not art, hid the piece from view during the show. Duchamp quickly quit the society, and the publication of
Blind Man, which followed the exhibition was devoted to the controversy. While still hiding his own participation in the piece, Duchamp indicated in a 1917 letter to his sister that a female friend was centrally involved in submitting this work. As he writes: "One of my female friends who had adopted the pseudonym Richard Mutt sent me a porcelain urinal as a sculpture." The friend, whose address on West 88th Street appears on the object's submission ticket, was
Louise Norton (later Varèse), though others have erroneously claimed the friend was
Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. •
Trap (Trébuchet), 1917. Wood and metal coatrack. Duchamp submitted it to a show at the Bourgeois Art Gallery and asked that it be placed near the entryway. It went unnoticed as art during the show. •
Hat Rack (Porte-chapeaux), c. 1917. A wooden hatrack that Duchamp suspended from the ceiling of his studio. •
50 cc of Paris Air (
50 cc air de Paris,
Paris Air or
Air de Paris), 1919. A glass ampoule containing
air from
Paris. Duchamp took the ampoule to
New York City in 1920 and gave it to
Walter Arensberg as a gift. The original was broken and replaced in 1949 by Duchamp. (Contrary to its title, the
volume of air inside the ampoule was not actually 50 cubic centimeters, although when replicas were made in later decades, 50 cm3 of air was used. The original ampoule is thought to have contained around 125 cm3 of air.) •
Fresh Widow, 1920. •
The Brawl at Austerlitz, 1921. == Assisted readymades ==