Art Notes: Butts at ATA, Duchamp and de Young

by Lydia Chávez August 12, 2014September 29, 2020

The butts in the left window at ATA are meant to remind us of Duchamp’s 1917 “The Fountain” a urinal turned into art and for some a turning point in modern art. Art wasn’t just about paintings and sculpture, but about concepts – turning something on its head and making us look at it differently.

ATA’s window is also a reminder that the de Young has a new show up, Modernism from the National Gallery.

If you want to know more about Mission Art History and the ATA, click here.

And, if you’re interested in a great read on the Duchamp story and modern art, look at this review in the Guardian and consider buying or borrowing Will Gompertz, What are You Looking At, 150 Years of Modern Art.

Lydia Chávez

lydia.chavez@missionlocal.com

Founder/Executive Editor. I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019 when I retired. I got my start in newspapers at the Albuquerque Tribune in the city where I was born and raised. Like many local news outlets, The Tribune no longer exists. I left daily newspapers after working at The New York Times for the business, foreign and city desks. Lucky for all of us, it is still there.

As an old friend once pointed out, local has long been in my bones. My Master’s Project at Columbia, later published in New York Magazine, was on New York City’s experiment in community boards.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how you make that long-held interest in local news sustainable. The answer continues to elude me.

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