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Arts & Culture

The Use of Negative Space in Minimalist Sculpture and Duchamp's Readymades

Quick fact

Duchamp's 'Fountain'—a urinal—was rejected from an art exhibition in 1917, yet it became one of the most influential artworks of the 20th century, almost entirely because of the context and the space it occupied.

Why this is interesting

You've seen a sculpture that is just a block or a urinal on a pedestal—why did it feel so powerful? The secret lies not in the object, but in the space around it and the ideas it leaves out.