Duchamp's Toilet in a Museum: Can Anything Be Art?

A major new exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) re-examines Marcel Duchamp. The artist famously challenged the world's definition of art a century ago. Duchamp presented ordinary, mass-produced objects as art. His most famous work, a porcelain urinal titled "Fountain," was rejected in 1917 but is now a landmark artwork. He called these pieces "readymades." The MoMA survey shows how Duchamp's ideas permanently changed art. He argued that an artist's idea and choice were more important than traditional craft or beauty. This shifted the focus from the object's creation to the concept behind it. The exhibition comes at a time when the art world continues to debate value and meaning. Duchamp's radical question—"What is art?"—remains powerfully relevant today.