An auction of works of art which rounded off the Fountain17 project has raised £1,648, £1,185 of which will go to charity.
Some 50 lots went on sale at the Queens House Showcase in Hull city centre, with the charitable proceeds split between Samaritans Hull and Bowel & Cancer Research.
Fountain17 was part of the Armitage Thanks charity fundraising campaign, which was organised as part of the Armitage Shanks bicentenary celebrations and raised more than £215,000.
Tony Rheinberg, from Armitage Shanks and Fountain17, said: “I’m really pleased that the Fountain17 project has been able to add to the final total of Armitage Thanks.
“The artists who contributed have shown great creativity and imagination with their works, which were an excellent response to the challenge they were presented with.”
Fountain17 – a collaboration between Armitage Shanks and Hull School of Art and Design – was inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s celebrated masterpiece, Fountain, a urinal which the artist turned on its back and signed ‘R. Mutt 1917’.
In April 1917, Duchamp submitted his ‘readymade’ Fountain to the Society of Independent Artists’ first exhibition in New York. The exhibit was rejected.
This action redirected the trajectory of 20th century art and, in 2004, 500 elected art professionals voted Fountain the most influential artwork of the 20th century.
In celebration of Duchamp’s work, Armitage Shanks launched an art competition in partnership with the Hull School of Art and Design as part of its bicentenary celebrations, inviting young artists to respond to Duchamp’s Fountain.
The works included sculpture, painting, performance, film and of course urinals. Those who contributed include Turner Prize winning collective Assemble, renowned author and poet Lemn Sissay MBE, award-winning designer Ben Kelly, Hull School of Art and Design alumnus sculptor Neville Gabie, artists Anna Bean, Andy Dakin and Adele Howitt, plus a host of others.