Found art, or more commonly and less confusingly, 'Found Object' (French: objet trouvé) is a term used to describe art created from common objects not normally considered to be artistic (also assemblage). The idea behind found art is that the piece of art derives its significance from the context into which it is put. Found art blurs the traditional lines of what art is and questions the very nature of art itself.
Marcel Duchamp's "readymades" are some famous and the earliest examples of found art: for one piece, Fountain, he signed a urinal with the pseudonym "R. Mutt" and mounted it face up. Another piece, Bottle Rack, is simply that: a bottlerack signed by Duchamp.
Recent research by art historian Rhonda Roland Shearer indicates that Duchamp's supposedly 'found' objects may actually have been created by Duchamp. Exhaustive research of mundane items like snow shovels and bottle racks in use at the time has failed to turn up any identical matches. The urinal, upon close inspection, is non-functional.
Picasso's Baboon and Young is a good example of a found object being used to create the basis of a larger piece of work.
Many contemporary artists have used found objects in their art work including
Composers have often used found sound in compositions, examples including John Cage and Nicolas Collins. Poets, too, create art out of non-literary writing; Cordelia McGuire turned a funeral home's want ad into a poem entitled Embalmer just by adding line breaks.
Found art features in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amelie
Marcel Duchamp's Impossible Bed and Other "Not" Readymade Objects: A Possible Route of Influence From Art To Science by Rhonda Roland Shearer (http://www.marcelduchamp.org/ImpossibleBed/PartI/)
Found art derives significance from the context into which it is placed, thus blurring the traditional distinction of what is art, and what is not art, and challenges the nature of art.
Found Magazine, based in Ann Arbor, MI, collects and catalogs found notes, photos, and other interesting items.
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