I have always been intrigued by art.
Up until the end of the 19th century art had generally followed the accepted aesthetics of the time. Paintings were done to please the patrons or to express the ideals of beauty of the moment. Then in 1914, Marcel Duchamp presented "Bottle Rack", which is considered one of his first readymades.
replica of Bottle Rack
This object, unlike other objects he had used before like "Bicycle Wheel" and "Pharmacy", was not altered in any way, making it his first true readymade. Today the most famous readymade by Duchamp is "Fountain".
replica of Fountain
A lot of controversy surrounded this object. It was supposed to be exposed at the Society of Independent Artists Exhibit in 1917. This event had stated that it would exhibit all the pieces it received. However the board members decided "Fountain" was not art and hid it from view during the show. After this the New York Dadaists decided to publish it as a photo in one of their anonymous journals. It was entitled "The Richard Mutt Case" and accompanying the image was the following explanation:
"Whether Mr Mutt made the fountain with his own hands or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view – created a new thought for that object."
Duchamp and the dadaists were some of the first artists that began to question what art was, what it was supposed to be and what it could be. With their actions they shifted the focus from the physical object to the intellectual aspect of the piece and thus, conceptual art was born.
Around the same time, at the beginning of the 20th century, in Germany something very different was happening. In 1907 Hermann Muthesius, along with several architects, founded the Deutscher Werkbund. The idea of this group was to combine traditional crafts with industrial mass-production techniques. It also sought to integrate artists, architects, designers and industrialists. The men involved in this group were mostly architects and designers and during the years that the group was active they created furniture, houses and spaces.
It was also thanks to the development of this group, that the Bauhaus came to be. It held similar principles, as it was meant to bring all arts together so that they could influence each other and work as a whole.
So now we have two important movements in the world, at the same time, that look at objects and art. The world was becoming more industrialized. Artists were questioning art and Industrial Design as we know it was born. Artists began to appreciate the beauty of everyday industrial objects to the extent that industrial designers could be considered artists. I guess it was only logical that the boundaries between art and design became hazy. Today there are designers that use objects to question beliefs the same way artists do. But I'll leave that for some other day.
