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found object

Art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects or products that are not normally considered art, often because they already have a non-art function (objets trouvé). Picasso first publicly utilised the idea when he pasted a printed image of chair caning onto his painting titled Still Life with Chair Caning (1912). However, it was Duchamp who perfected the concept several years later when he made a series of 'ready-mades', consisting of completely unaltered everyday objects selected by him and designated as art. The most famous example is Fountain (1917), a standard urinal purchased from a hardware store and displayed on a pedestal. Although it may now be accepted in the art world as a viable practice, it continues to arouse questioning, as with the Tate Gallery's Turner Prize exhibition of Tracey Emin's My Bed, which consisted literally of her unmade and dishevelled bed.