Re-Object

Urinals, vacuum cleaners, basketballs, glass sheets livestock? This study of key moments in the history of ready-made and object-based art features Damien Hirst (London), Gerhard Merz (Munich), Jeff Koons (New York) and their shared historical point of reference, Marcel Duchamp (Paris and New York, 1887-1968). Recently a poll of 500 British critics called Duchamp's 1917 "Fountain" the most influential Modern artwork ever created. Even more recently, a man assaulted it with a hammer at the Centre Pompidou, confirming that, nearly a century later, emotions are still running high. Object-based art, which grew into a major twentieth-century trend and continues today, took its cue from the ready-made, and "Re-Object" explores the continuation and transformation of both lines in contemporary artistic practice, via large-format photographs and analytical essays on the artists.