Found object
Found object originates from the French
objet trouvé, describing art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects or products that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function. Pablo Picasso first publicly utilized the idea when he pasted a printed image of chair caning onto his painting titled
Still Life with Chair Caning. Marcel Duchamp is thought to have perfected the concept several years later when he made a series of
ready-mades, consisting of completely unaltered everyday objects selected by Duchamp and designated as art. The most famous example is
Fountain, a standard urinal purchased from a hardware store and displayed on a pedestal, resting on its side. In its strictest sense art term "ready-made" is applied exclusively to works produced by Marcel Duchamp, who borrowed the term from the clothing industry while living in New York, and especially to works dating from 1913 to 1921. Found objects derive their identity as art from the designation placed upon them by the artist and from the social history that comes with the object.