Dada • 1917 • VI
In New York, Marcel Duchamp, Henri-Pierre Roché and Beatrice Wood publish the first issue of The Blind Man. The journal announces the birth of independent art in America and the upcoming exhibition of Independent Artists. Duchamp submits a porcelain urinal under a false name (R Mutt) to the exhibition, testing the limits of the Independent Artists' 'no jury, no prize' principle. The work is rejected and Duchamp, Arensberg and Alfred Stieglitz (who are on the committee) resign in protest. Duchamp's seemingly simple provocation provides a landmark for future avant-garde practices.
An entry from the timeline included in the exhibition Dada South? Experimentation, Radicalism and Resistance (2009–2010) at the Iziko National Gallery, which proposed connections between art production in South Africa and abroad against the social and political contexts that framed them. A revised version of this timeline was later featured in the retroactive Flight Paths (2011) exhibition guide commissioned by Clare Butcher.