the blindman

Three little magazines were produced by the French émigrés Marcel Duchamp and Henri-Pierre Roché in New York in 1917, and their role in the scandal of Duchamp's Fountain has ensured their inscription in the history of Dada, though the name was then unknown to the protagonists. Duchamp's close friend Francis Picabia was in New York at the same time and his 391 was also exploring Duchamp's idea of the 'readymade'.

The Blindman (its first issue ran the words together in the title) was published in April 1917 by Henri-Pierre Roché with contributions from Mina Loy and Beatrice Wood.
[...] The second issue in May of the same year, P.B.T. The Blind Man (te B stood apparently for Beatrice, the T for Totor, Duchamp's nickname) carried the famous statement 'The Richard Mutt Case', which protested the suppression of R. Mutt's Fountain-urinal from the Independents exhibition.
TEXT CREDITS
Dawn Ades, 'The Blind Man and New York Dada', in The Dada Reader. A Critical Anthology / edited by Dawn Ades (Tate Publishing : London 2006) 146].

DESCRIPTION
- N° 1 (April 1917) - N° 2 (May 1917).
- Edited by Henri-Pierre Roché, Beatrice Wood, and Marcel Duchamp. Both numbers published in New York by Henri-Pierre Roché.
- Issue 1 (The Blindman) 8 pages; Issue 2 (P.B.T. The Blind Man) 16 pages.
- Bibliographic references:
  Little Magazines & Modernism.

CONTRIBUTORS
Henri Pierre Roché, Beatrice Wood, Mina Loy, Marcel Duchamp, Alfred Frueh, Robert Carlton Brown, Erik Satie, Louise Norton, Charles Demuth, Walter Conrad Arensberg, Frank Crowninshield, Francis Picabia, Charles Duncan, Gabrielle Buffet, Francis Simpson Stevens, Allen Norton, Clara Tice, and Alfred Stieglitz.

FACSIMILES/REPRINTS
online
- Digital Dada Library, International Dada Archive: n° 2 only.
- The Blindman 1 and The Blind Man 2, in tout-fait. The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal 1, issue 3 (December 2000).
printed
- Reprinted in 'Dada americano', in Documenti e periodici dada / Arturo Schwarz (Mazzotta : Milano 1970) portfolio. Includes The Blindman 1-2, New York Dada, Watch Your Step, The Ridgefield Gazook and Rongwrong.
- [anthology] 'The Blind Man and New York Dada', in The Dada Reader. A Critical Anthology / edited by Dawn Ades (Tate Publishing : London 2006) 145-160.

SECONDARY LITERATURE
Thomas Girst
'Rarities from 1917: Facsimiles of The Blind Man No.1, The Blind Man No.2 and Rongwrong'/ compiled by Thomas Girst (visuals by Mika, Andrzej)', in tout-fait. The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal Issue 3 (December 2000).
Séverine Gossart
'The Blindman (no 1), The Blind Man (no 2)', in Dada (Editions du Centre Pompidou : Paris 2005) 192.

Duchamp's Fountain
In 1917 in New York, Marcel Duchamp made his most notorious readymade, Fountain, a mens urinal signed by the artist with "R. Mutt" and exhibited placed on its back. It was submitted to the exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists. After much debate by the board members about whether the piece was or was not art, Fountain was hidden from view during the show. The theory behind the readymade was explained in an article, anonymous but almost certainly by Duchamp himself, in the May 1917 issue of P.B.T. The Blind Man:
"They say any artist paying six dollars may exhibit. Mr Richard Mutt sent in a fountain. Without discussion this article disappeared and never was exhibited. What were the grounds for refusing Mr Mutt's fountain:-
1. Some contended it was immoral and vulgar.
2. Others, it was plagiarism, a plain piece of plumbing.
Now Mr Mutt's fountain is not immoral, that is absurd, no more than a bath tub is immoral. It is a fixture that you see every in plumbers' show windows.
Whether Mr Mutt with his own hands made the fountain or not has no importance. He CHOSE it. He took an ordinary article of life, placed it so that its useful significance disappeared under the new title and point of view - created a new thought for that object. As for plumbing, that is absurd. The only works of art America has given are her plumbing and her bridges."
There are three important points here: first, that the choice of object is itself a creative act. Secondly, that by cancelling the 'useful' function of an object it becomes art. Thirdly, that the presentation and addition of a title to the object have given it 'a new thought', a new meaning. Duchamp's readymades also asserted the principle that what is art is defined by the artist.
TEXT CREDITS
Kristina Seekamp, 'Fountain', in Unmaking the Museum: Marcel Duchamp's Readymades in Context, an online exhibition catalogue [URL arthist.binghamton.edu/duchamp/].
IMAGE CREDITS
Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917, photographed by Alfred Stieglitz at his 291 Gallery after the 1917 Society of Independent Artists exhibit. The photo was published in P.B.T. The Blind Man.
SEE ALSO ON THIS SITE
Duchamp's Ready-Mades.