How Duchamp Inspired These 4 Artists

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How Duchamp Inspired These 4 Artists

Decades after his death, he continues to influence contemporary artists. Here are four — of many — who have riffed on his urinal sculpture “Fountain.”

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By

Blake Gopnik

April 7, 2026,

5:03 a.m. ET

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Sherrie Levine

‘Fountain (After Marcel Duchamp)’ (1991)

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“Fountain (After Marcel Duchamp)”

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Sherrie Levine; Photo by Zindman/Fremont

The New York artist Sherrie Levine is famous for appropriating artworks by others as her own, much as Marcel Duchamp appropriated a commercial urinal as his sculpture. But when she riffed on “Fountain,” she told me, she altered her source a fair bit. She’d found an ancient urinal in a shop — “I thought, ‘Wow, that’s beautiful,’ so I bought it, not knowing what I was going to do with it” — then had it cast in bronze and polished. She likes the “preciousness” this process added to Duchamp’s original, which can come off as simply abject. Also important: Her golden metal looks openly expensive, while Duchamp’s porcelain can pretend to be modest, although a 1964 replica sold at Sotheby’s in 1999 for $1.7 million. That’s what a Fort Knox gold bar goes for today — something Duchamp might have loved.

Alex Schweder

‘Peescapes’ (2001)

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“Peescapes”

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Alex Schweder

Where Duchamp turned a real working urinal into a hands-off sculpture, the New York artist Alex Schweder collaborated with Kohler, the bathroom company, to turn toilets into sculptures meant to be plumbed for use.

“Duchamp took a functional work and created shock by putting it an art context, but I’m arriving at a similar affect by putting an artwork in daily spaces,” Schweder told me.

Duchamp’s nonfunctioning “Fountain” seemed to avoid any obvious aesthetics, while Schweder said that “Peescapes” adds aesthetics, giving waste a roundabout detour as it heads for the drain. Another innovation of Schweder’s: Since “Fountain” is so unavoidably wrapped up in maleness, he thought to design a new version that women could use.

Maurizio Cattelan

‘America’ (2016)

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