A 1964 replica of Duchamp’s Fountain on display at the Pompidou center in 2006

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In The New York Times article Conceptual Artist as Vandal: Walk Tall and Carry a Little Hammer (or Ax), Alan Riding reports on the arrest of French performance artist Pierre Pinoncelli, who attempted to break a replica of Duchamp’s Fountain that was on display at the Pompidou center. Yet, as Riding points out, “the Dada movement made its name in the early 20th century by trying to destroy the conventional notion of art.” One cannot help but think that Duchamp would have approved of Pinoncelli’s action, since like Fountain itself, the act called into question the nature and value of art. Fountain, which was excluded from the 1917 Society of Independent Artists exhibition one it was first made, is now exhibited at venues such as the Pompidou. Pinocelli’s act calls attention to the absurdity of this situation and like Duchamp’s work, shocks us into examining our own notions of what defines art.