Dada, or just gaga? Art vandal fined

GlobeandMail.com ^ | Wednesday, January 25, 2006 | PIERRE-ANTOINE SOUCHARD

[Republicanprofessor]

Dada, or just gaga? Art vandal fined French court convicts 77-year-old man for taking hammer to Duchamp work

PARIS -- A court has convicted a 77-year-old French man for attacking artist Marcel Duchamp's famed porcelain urinal with a hammer, rejecting the defendant's contention that he had increased the value of the art work by making it an "original."

The court gave Pierre Pinoncelli a three-month suspended prison sentence Tuesday and ordered him to pay a $283,000 fine.

Pinoncelli also was ordered to pay $20,318 to repair Fountain, a work worth millions of dollars that was chipped in the Jan. 4 hammer attack at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. The work was part of an exhibit of the early-20th-century's avant-garde Dada movement.

The Pompidou had sought more than $523,930 for the damage.

Pinoncelli -- who announced that he plans to appeal the decision -- told reporters that what he had done was not vandalism but a "wink" at Dadaism that had Duchamp's blessing. "I told him in 1967 that I would do something," Pinoncelli said.

"I added to its value," he said, assuring that Duchamp would "have had a good laugh."

Duchamp, who died in 1968, emphasized the creative process, and a role for the spectator.

The work has an estimated value of $3.9-million, said Marie Delion, a lawyer for the Pompidou. The original was lost but in 1964 Duchamp created eight other versions of the work.

After buying his ticket to the exhibit on Jan. 4, Pinoncelli attacked Fountain with a hammer before writing "Dada" on the sculpture.

Pinoncelli, a former salesman who calls himself a participant in the creative process as conceived by Duchamp, said that his hammer attack was an artistic endeavour.

The January urinal attack was not the first for Pinoncelli. He urinated on the piece during a 1993 exhibition in Nîmes in southern France.

"The day that you understand that what belongs to someone else does not belong to you, things will go better between yourself and society," the court said after handing down the sentence.

Pinoncelli's antics are not limited to the Dada movement or works of art. He cut off his own finger as an expression of solidarity with Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, held hostage by leftist guerrillas since 2002.

Duchamp's idea to turn a urinal into a work of art first appeared in 1917 when he tried to display the piece at a New York show under the name R. Mutt. It was refused.

A 2004 poll of 500 arts figures ranked Fountain as the most influential work of modern art -- ahead of Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Andy Warhol's screen prints of Marilyn Monroe and Guernica, Picasso's depiction of war's devastation.

[Republicanprofessor]

This is Pinoncelli. I couldn't find any images of the "Fountain" as I remembered it at the Pompidou some years ago: then it was a more modern urinal, hanging at an angle in the air. It looked nothing like Duchamp's Fountain which may be seen below.

I can't believe anyone would value that original urinal for almost $4 mil. Nor that it would cost $500,000 plus to fix it. Just buy another one. None of them are original anyway.

I am usually a big defender of the art world, but this is nuts. Pinoncelli is right. Duchamp would laugh out loud.

[dead]

rejecting the defendant's contention that he had increased the value of the art work by making it an "original."

Now there's a Frenchman I'd buy a beer.

[Republicanprofessor]

Art ping.

Let Sam Cree, Woofie or me know if you want on or off this ping list.

[jdm]

Are you supposed to blow into it?

Inflatable urinals.

[billorites]

[Age of Reason]

He urinated on the piece during a 1993 exhibition in Nîmes in southern France.

ROFLMAO!

[MinuteGal]

In an earlier era, this loon would be a candidate for Madame Guillotine.

Now THAT would be great live art.

Leni

[Age of Reason]

Now there's a Frenchman I'd buy a beer.

And he'll know what to do with it after he drinks it.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

[Sam Cree]

"None of them are original anyway."

So the actual artist is the designer of the urinal, with Duchamp, rather than making art, making a social comment on art (or something). I can admit that it is kind of creative to offer a urinal as art, but in the same way that teenage boys do humorous, but rude practical jokes as a way to mock or defy authority.

Anyhow, that's a lot of money for a somewhat childish social comment. I guess that kind of valuation is some sort of comment in itself, though not a very flattering one on the art world. 'Course, I have no idea what DuChamps point was in the first place.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

[bert]

 

Very expensive American Urinal

((and the Hate goes on....)

[Republicanprofessor]

Okay, I'm showing my ignorance.

What is that? An airline hangar? I know I should know; please enlighten me.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

I believe it's the Clinton Library when it was under construction.

[Caesar Soze]

Not entirely unlike the bombing of the Rodin in Cleveland. But the CMA just filed down the sharp bits and put it back on display, outdoors, right where the anarchists hit it -- none of this "restoration" business.

[bert]

That is the Clinton Liebrary

[Republicanprofessor]

Again, I am ignorant. Would you please let me know some background on the bombing of the Rodin in Cleveland? I love his work.

Thanks to all for enlightening me.

[Valin]

Is it just me, or does it look like a trailer house?

[Blind Eye Jones]

"He cut off his own finger as an expression of solidarity with Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt, held hostage by leftist guerrillas since 2002. "

As an expression of solidarity I didn't cut off my finger or any body part, but, man, was it ever painful for me not to do that! I figure that by not cutting anything off I am being truly 'original': taking the cutting edge beyond the cutting edge but people have not seen that subtle aspect it yet... Yeah know, they're just the cheap vulgar types that can't see beyond their bourgeois art forms... no vision... and they live such tawdry lives anyway.