Mutt) and then presented it to an art exhibition that cost him $6. Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an object, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view and then created a new thought for that object. There have been many theories revolving around Duchamp's thought process relating as to why he would do such an absurd thing, but they all come back to the idea that he, despite his infamous "influence" - He discovered something new; no one can discover it again. The cleverest artist of the 20th century played a great joke on art history, all to test the boundaries of the art world.
Another work of Marcel Duchamp that represents his odd concepts and ideals is 'To Be Looked at (from the Other Side of the Glass) with One Eye, Close to, for Almost an Hour' The title of this work, which Duchamp said he "intended to sound like an eye doctors prescription," tells the viewer exactly how to look at it. But peering through the convex lens embedded in the work's glass "for almost an hour" would have a hallucinatory effect, the view being dwarfed, flipped, and otherwise distorted. Meanwhile the responder patiently following the title's instruction is him- or herself put on display for anyone else walking by. Duchamp called To Be Looked At . . . his "small glass," to differentiate it from his famous Large Glass of 1915–23. He made the work in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he had fled earlier in 1918 to escape the oppressive ambiance of the United States during World War I. When he shipped it back to New York, the glass cracked in transit, an effect that delighted him.
Inscribed in French on a strip of metal glued across the center of this work are the words of its title, suggesting that viewers look through the lens Duchamp mounted between two panes of glass haloed in concentric circles.