Martin Creed Exhibit

The ability of modern art to turn the mundane into the intellectually engaging has persisted since the fateful day that Marcel Duchamp famously scrawled “R.Mutt” onto a urinal and entered it into the 1917 exhibit for New York’s Society of Independent Artists. The work created an uproar and brought a whole new element to the question of what art actually is. Though British artist Martin Creed has never passed off a urinal as a piece of art, it’s not difficult to see some parallels between Duchamp’s “readymades” and some of Creed’s works, such as the crumpled-up paper balls sometimes found in his exhibits (for one such piece, check the first floor restroom of the Frick Fine Arts building). His works, which sometimes also feature audio and visual elements, make use of isolation, size and placement to give viewers a new look at everyday items. As a part of Pitt’s Museum Studies course, a class of Pitt students has tried to capture this aspect of Creed’s art in the University Art Gallery. Feel free to peruse the exhibit and ponder the nature of art yourself: The gallery is free to the public and the exhibit runs through Nov. 26.