A renowned Dada artist, Marcel Duchamp, made headlines in 1917 by submitting a urinal signed "R.Mutt" to the first exhibition of the American Society of Independent Artists at the Armory Show in New York. According to a press report, Duchamp, operating under a pseudonym, J.C. Mutt of Philadelphia, was relatively unknown in artistic circles at the time.
It was claimed that Duchamp had heard that a payment of five dollars would allow him to send a work of art of any description or degree of excellence to the exhibition. In compliance, he dispatched a familiar bathroom fixture from Quaker City, a well-known firm, along with a five-dollar bill. This unexpected move transformed a urinal into a "work of art".
Interestingly, Duchamp also appeared in the 1924 film Entr'acte, where he played an absurd game of chess, his favorite pastime, against the artist Man Ray.
