Toilets as Modern Art

The Centre Pompidou in Paris, also known as Centre Beaubourg, is one of the world's major museums of modern art.

It contains two pieces in which toilets are considered as art.

One piece of toiletological art is Marcel Duchamp's Fontaine, executed 1917-1964 as the explanatory placard tells it.

Apparently what happened is that in 1917 Duchamp laid a urinal flat, signed it "R. Mutt", and called it an art piece.

It was submitted to an exhibition but not accepted. The original was lost, apparently thrown out (which seems likely as it was something the artist had found discarded in the first place).

Then, in the 1960s, he was commissioned to make a number of replicas.

On 4 January 2006, Pierre Pinoncelli, a French performance artist, attacked the version at the Centre Pompidou with a hammer.

Unlike the other "interventions", he used a hammer. The others used a more obvious and appropriate form of assault....

The second piece of toiletological art seems to me to have much more thinking and degree of art or at least design.

Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), designed and built the sanitary block Savoie in 1972-1974. It's a modular bathroom with tub and shower, sink, and toilet, built of polyester reinforced with fibreglass.

The unit is included in the museum's section on industrial design.

The intent of the design was to support economical and efficient construction while providing pleasant living conditions.

Sherrie Levine created her piece Fountain (After Marcel Duchamp) in 1991. It was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art from November 10, 2011 through January 29, 2012.

This piece is cast bronze, 14.5×14×26 inches.

The New York Times carried a review of her show the day it opened.

Rose George's The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters is a fascinating description of sanitation conditions around the world. "2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. [....] Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box. [....] Poor sanitation, bad hygiene, and unsafe water — usually unsafe because it has fecal particles in it — cause one in ten of the world's illnesses. [....] Diarrhea — nearly 90 percent of which is caused by fecally contaminated food or water — kills a child every fifteen seconds. The number of children who have died from diarrhea in the last decade [1998-2008] exceeds the total number of people killed by armed conflict since the Second World War.

In September 2009, Morna Gregory and Sian James published a book titled Toilets of the World. It's pretty much the same theme that you find here — photographs and commentary on other people's plumbing.

The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet, by Julie Horan, contends that civilization began with the toilet.

Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, edited by Laura Noren and Harvey Molotch, has essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and architects on the importance of the toilet, especially for urban dwellers.

Latrinae Et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World describes the toilets of the Roman Empire from Iberia to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian's Wall in Britannia.

Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom, explains the history of personal cleanliness and hygiene to children in grades 5-8.

If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in (or at least tolerate):

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