Fountain (Madonna) 1991

Sherrie Levine made this *Fountain (Madonna)*, out of bronze, recasting Duchamp’s original porcelain urinal. Levine transforms the readymade into a precious object with this shiny surface reflecting the world around it. By casting Duchamp’s famous, or infamous, work in bronze, she immortalizes it. I wonder what Duchamp would have made of it. Did she think about how to recast it? What if she’d chosen a different material? Maybe one with a rougher texture, or something soft that would change shape? There’s a kind of reverence and playfulness in Levine’s gesture, like she’s honoring the history of art while also twisting it. It's as if she's asking: what does it mean to make something new out of something old? Sherrie asks all of us to think about what makes art, art.