Editing Found object (section)

== History ==
=== Antecedents ===
{{seealso|Manuport}}
[[File:Alphonse Allais.jpg|thumb|Alphonse Allais, ''Des souteneurs encore dans la force de l'âge et le ventre dans l'herbe boivent de l'absinthe'', carriage curtain, before 1897.]]

One curator considers East Asian [[scholar's rock]]s to be early examples of found objects. Found and collected in natural settings, the rocks are changed only minimally for display, seldom beyond the addition of a display stand, and are meant to be contemplated as idealized representations of nature. Geological processes, chief among them [[erosion]], give the rocks their distinctive qualities, rather than any modification by an artist or artisan.<ref>{{cite journal|author-last=Dodson|author-first=Donna|title=Interpreting the natural: contemporary visions of scholars' rocks.|journal=Creative Arts in Education and Therapy |volume=7|issue=1|date=August 2021|pages=11–13|doi=10.15212/CAET/2021/7/1|s2cid=238719901 |quote=They embody the original impulse to elevate a found object to fine art status, not unlike a "readymade," where a commonplace artifact is viewed as art.|doi-access=free}}</ref>

In 2017–2018, the French expert {{ill|Johann Naldi|fr}} found and identified seventeen unpublished works in a private collection, classified as a national treasure on May 7, 2021, by the French Ministry of Culture,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Philippe |first=Dagen |date=May 10, 2021 |title=Dix-neuf œuvres des Arts incohérents classées trésor national |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2021/05/10/dix-neuf-uvres-des-arts-incoherents-classees-tresor-national_6079757_3246.html |journal=Le Monde}}</ref> including ''Des souteneurs encore dans la force de l'âge et le ventre dans l'herbe'' by Alphonse Allais'','' consisting of a green carriage curtain suspended from a wooden cylinder.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Philippe |first=Dagen |date=February 3, 2021 |title=17 œuvres des Arts incohérents : un trésor redécouvert dans une malle |url=https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2021/02/03/dans-une-malle-17-uvres-parodiques-des-arts-incoherents-redecouvertes_6068592_3246.html |journal=Le Monde}}</ref> This work was certainly exhibited at the [[Incoherents]] exhibitions in Paris between 1883 and 1893. According to Johann Naldi, this work is the oldest known readymade and was a source of inspiration for Marcel Duchamp.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johann |first=Naldi |title=Arts incohérents, discoveries and new perspectives |publisher=Lienart |date=April 2022 |isbn=978-2-35906-366-0 |location=Paris |pages=164–183}}</ref>

=== Duchamp's "readymades" ===
{{main|Readymades of Marcel Duchamp}}

[[Marcel Duchamp]] coined the term ''readymade'' in 1915 to describe a common object that had been selected and not materially altered in any way. Duchamp assembled ''[[Bicycle Wheel]]'' in 1913 by attaching a common front wheel and fork to the seat of a common stool. This was not long after his ''[[Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2|Nude Descending a Staircase]]'' was attracting the attention of critics at the [[Armory Show|International Exhibition of Modern Art]]. In 1917, ''[[Fountain (Duchamp)|Fountain]]'', a urinal signed with the pseudonym "R. Mutt", and generally attributed to Duchamp, confounded the art world. In the same year, Duchamp indicated in a letter to his sister, Suzanne Duchamp, that a female friend was centrally involved in the conception of 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."<ref>Duchamp, Marcel trans. and qtd. in [[Irene Gammel|Gammel, Irene]]. ''Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada and Everyday Modernity''. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2002, 224.</ref> [[Irene Gammel]] argues that the piece is more in line with the scatological aesthetics of Duchamp's friend, the [[Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven|Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven]], than Duchamp's.<ref>Gammel, ''Baroness Elsa'', 224–225.</ref> The other possible, and more probable, "female friend" is  [[Louise Varèse|Louise Norton]] (later Varèse), who contributed an essay to ''[[The Blind Man]]'' discussing ''Fountain''.<ref>[http://sdrc.lib.uiowa.edu/dada/blindman/2/05.htm "Buddha of the Bathroom"], ''[[The Blind Man]]'', no. 2, May 1917, pp. 5-6.</ref>  Norton, who recently had separated from her husband, was living at the time in an apartment owned by her parents at 110 West 88th Street in [[New York City]], and this address is partially discernible (along with "Richard Mutt") on the paper entry ticket attached to the object, as seen in Stieglitz's photograph.<ref>Francis M. Naumann, ''New York Dada, 1915-23'' (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994), p. 239, note 17.</ref>

Research by [[Rhonda Roland Shearer]] indicates that Duchamp may have fabricated his found objects. Exhaustive research of mundane items like snow shovels and bottle racks in use at the time failed to reveal identical matches. The urinal, upon close inspection, is non-functional. However, there are accounts of [[Walter Arensberg]] and [[Joseph Stella]] being with Duchamp when he purchased the original ''Fountain'' at J. L. Mott Iron Works.<ref>Shearer, Rhonda Roland: [http://www.duchamp.org/ImpossibleBed/PartI/ "Marcel Duchamp's Impossible Bed and Other 'Not' Readymade Objects: A Possible Route of Influence From Art To Science"], 1997.</ref>

=== Later development ===
[[File:An Oak Tree (conceptual art installation).jpg|thumb|''[[An Oak Tree]]'' by [[Michael Craig-Martin]]; 1973]]
The use of found objects was quickly taken up by the [[Dada]] movement, being used by [[Man Ray]] and [[Francis Picabia]] who combined it with traditional art by sticking combs onto a painting to represent hair.<ref>{{cite web | title=Tate Collection - The Handsome Pork-Butcher by Francis Picabia | website= [[Tate Gallery]] | date=16 May 2011 | url=http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=21640&searchid=8483 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706005148/http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=21640&searchid=8483 | archive-date=6 July 2011 | url-status=dead | access-date=6 November 2022}}</ref> A well-known work by Man Ray is ''Gift'' (1921), which is an iron with nails sticking out from its flat underside, thus rendering it useless.<ref>{{cite web | title= Gift (1921)| website=Man Ray Photo | url=http://www.manray-photo.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=30&products_id=157&osCsid=d49650ee1a772ead1f06e8b878e83e9a  | access-date=6 November 2022}}</ref> [[Jose de Creeft]] began making large-scale assemblages in [[Paris]], such as ''Picador'' (1925), made of scrap metal, rubber and other materials.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

The combination of several found objects is a type of readymade sometimes known as an [[Assemblage (art)|assemblage]]. Another such example is Marcel Duchamp's ''[[Why Not Sneeze, Rose Sélavy?]]'', consisting of a small birdcage containing a thermometer, cuttlebone, and 151 marble cubes resembling [[sugar cube]]s.

By the time of the Surrealist Exhibition of Objects in 1936 a whole range of sub-classifications had been devised—including found objects, ready-made objects, perturbed objects, mathematical objects, natural objects, interpreted natural objects, incorporated natural objects, Oceanic objects, American objects and Surrealist objects. At this time Surrealist leader, [[André Breton]], defined readymades as "manufactured objects raised to the dignity of works of art through the choice of the artist".

In the 1960s, found objects were present in both the [[Fluxus]] movement and in [[pop art]]. [[Joseph Beuys]] exhibited modified found objects; examples include rocks with a hole in them stuffed with fur and fat, a van with sledges trailing behind it, and a rusty girder.

In 1973, [[Michael Craig-Martin]] claimed of his work ''[[An Oak Tree]]'', "It's not a symbol. I have changed the physical substance of the glass of water into that of an oak tree. I didn't change its appearance. The actual oak tree is physically present, but in the form of a glass of water."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090301093722/http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/theres-no-need-to-be-afraid-of-the-present-625001.html "There's No Need to be Afraid of the Present"], ''[[The Independent]]'', 25 June 2001</ref>