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Is... It... Art?

In the early 1900s, Dadaism led to some very... interesting art pieces. For each picture, guess whether the object was arranged or created by an artist specifically to create an art piece, or whether it is some random everyday object.
Some of the pieces here are not strictly Dada, but are certainly inspired by the movement.
Quiz by Dimby
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Featured Quiz
Last updated: October 25, 2023
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First submittedOctober 25, 2023
Times taken13,994
Average score66.7%
Rating4.36
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1.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
"Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp, 1917
2.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
"Chairs for Abu Dhabi" by Tadashi Kawamata, 2012
3.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
A random ladder in a room.
4.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
"Bottle Rack" by Marcel Duchamp, 1914
5.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
Road Blocks in Czechia
6.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
"The Lovers" by Mark di Suvero, 1973
7.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
"In Advance of the Broken Arm" by Marcel Duchamp, 1915
8.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
An abandoned car in India.
9.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
A glass that broke from pouring boiling water into it.
10.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
A walking cane used by Lt. Armstrong from New Zealand.
11.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
"Red wire sculpture" by Kurt Schwitters, 1944
12.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
Just two horseshoes
13.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
"Gift" - Man Ray 1921
14.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
"Bicycle Wheel" by Marcel Duchamp, 1914
15.
Art ✓
Random Object ✓
A ball of yarn I had lying around.
Dollyfroggy
+30
Level 60
Oct 25, 2023
I was hoping they would all be art. Nice quiz.
Dimby
+25
Level 77
Oct 25, 2023
Thanks. I mean, they could all be art. Maybe one day I'll be famous for "Ball of Yarn".
Poblohoney
+3
Level 44
Nov 4, 2023
Like many, I thought it was art, so you should definitely stick it in a gallery or auction it off at Sotheby's!
KabouterPlop
+2
Level 71
Nov 4, 2023
It's very possible! And it could be worth millions of dollars. But only after you die of course.
TenThousand
+2
Level 76
Nov 4, 2023
Ball of Yarn is a finer work than the one of a light bulb going off and on in an empty room, and that one won a Turner Prize.
dunkinggandalf2
+7
Level 68
Oct 27, 2023
Or all random objects!
Koopa
+2
Level 77
Oct 31, 2023
I was hoping none of them were, but I knew there was no chance at that.
overtired
+24
Level 84
Oct 25, 2023
Nice one. Quite brilliant how you've incorporated the outline of a head and shoulders in the yarn. Man looks upon the modern world and shrugs. Very powerful piece of work.
Dimby
+16
Level 77
Oct 26, 2023
Good eye. Not everyone gets the nod to Ayn Rand.
kogatora
+6
Level 93
Oct 27, 2023
The ball of yarn could have been a random object but then I loved how the needle you inserted alludes to our desire to include the other and the loose end evokes a sense of letting go. Absolute masterpiece, chef's kiss.
IsleAuHaulte
+2
Level 89
Oct 27, 2023
LOL
Quizmaster
+28
Level ∞
Oct 26, 2023
Was so sure that the ladder was art.
Fianchetto
+8
Level 73
Oct 26, 2023
Was I supposed to be able to tell the difference?
Fianchetto
+3
Level 73
Oct 26, 2023
Okay, also, what in the world are they doing in Czechia?
RobNobody
+8
Level 77
Nov 4, 2023
Blocking roads.
MindWax
+6
Level 83
Oct 26, 2023
Absolutely hilarious quiz. Thanks for the chuckle!
Prucsok
+3
Level 69
Oct 26, 2023
Great quiz!

Actually, the ladder COULD be art. I guessed right that it wasn't, but I could very easily imagine something like "Solitude" as a title.

The broken glass was the only one I failed to guess, by the way. (To be honest, I knew most of the Duchamps.) With the bluish-grey background that matches its shades, it looks so much like an installation.

You should definitely try your hand at dadaism.

And yes, it is also really funny. :) As dadaism should be.

Dimby
+4
Level 77
Oct 26, 2023
The background may or may not be a corrugated couch cushion. ;)
Mahkagh
+5
Level 78
Oct 26, 2023
The quality of shadow gives away a good bit about these ;)
Murphster45
+6
Level 88
Oct 26, 2023
This has to be the best worst quiz I've ever taken, 5/5 stars
MaxTheAxe
+1
Level 73
Nov 6, 2023
This sums it up exactly. Great terrible quiz!
CaptainUnderpant
+10
Level 79
Oct 26, 2023
Wikipedia says this about Bottle Rack: "The original piece was mistaken as rubbish due to its appearance, and was thrown out by Duchamp's sister and stepsister after the artist left France in 1914 for the US." He literally just bought it and did absolutely nothing to it except present it as art. I'd generally consider myself a fan of artistic interpretation/analysis, but this is just utterly meaningless to me. I don't get the humor or surrealism, my mind is blank when I look at these things. Anti-art at its finest, I suppose.
dunkinggandalf2
+2
Level 68
Oct 27, 2023
The point is that art is a matter of intention and perception. If something is presented as art, it will be perceived as art, and therefore, it is art.

It's a different philosophy from the ancient greeks for example, for whom art required a specific technique, or craft. In fact, they didn't even have separate words for the two concepts, as τέχνη / téchnê means both art and technique.

Still another point of view would be to consider that art has to do with beauty. This is probably what most people instinctively believe - but it also makes art highly subjective.

CaptainUnderpant
+2
Level 79
Oct 27, 2023
Yeah, to me the most compelling artworks often make some meta statement about art itself while also demonstrating a lot of skill or technique, combining your first and second points. I'd say these do a lot of the first with virtually none of the second. Obviously different people like different things, but for me I have to see some skill, even if I think the end result is ugly. The fact that replicas of Bottle Rack (not even the original damn thing) are in art museums with some of the most spectacular paintings ever created by humans is hilarious and depressing in its cutesy postmodern way.
dunkinggandalf2
+1
Level 68
Nov 8, 2023
Personally, I tend to generally enjoy older things over newer things. I'll gladly stare at a frying pan if it's a few thousands of years old. That's my taste. It's not superior to anyone's, it's just mine.
arjaygee
+4
Level 65
Oct 26, 2023
Fun quiz, even though I only scored 11. Did Abu Dhabi have a shortage of chairs in 2012?
Tramp
+6
Level 76
Oct 26, 2023
Yes. 98% of all chairs in the city were taken to make an artistic statement about the lack of chairs in the city. Source: I made it up.
Dimby
+7
Level 77
Oct 26, 2023
Apparently they had an excess!

On a side note: You can’t tell from the angle of the photo, but it’s actually a structure that you can walk inside. It’s pretty impressive.

NateVoD
+3
Level 58
Oct 26, 2023
Wow, that was a quick feature! Great quiz.
Dimby
+2
Level 77
Oct 26, 2023
Thanks!
PynchonsOverbite
+11
Level 91
Oct 26, 2023
There should be a Jetpunk equivalent to the Oscars. Every year awards given out for Most Inventive Quiz, Funniest Quiz, Best Overall Quiz, etc. This one would be nominatable for several categories. Nice work.
Dimby
+4
Level 77
Oct 26, 2023
Thanks for the kind words.
Dollyfroggy
+3
Level 60
Jan 5, 2024
This quiz placed #12 on the Most Liked Quizzes this year, which is somewhat like an award.
Dimby
+2
Level 77
Jan 5, 2024
Yes, I was quite surprised to be in an official list of some sort for JetPunk 2023!
akipopopopooon
+4
Level 70
Oct 26, 2023
kurt schwitters piece lets goooo

really fun quiz – i personally enjoy dada art but the difference between many pieces and regular objects really is just the presentation and you did a damn good job with the choices!

Etanna
+2
Level 70
Oct 27, 2023
haha I felt so clueless, in the majority of cases I could find no way to rationalize whether the object is or isn't art. I mostly ended up just tagging the more banal things as "art" and the seemingly more interesting ones as "random objects".
Maggiejo
+7
Level 69
Oct 27, 2023
I will never call a urinal art.
Dimby
+6
Level 77
Oct 27, 2023
It was awfully strange reading the words “one of the pinnacles of 20th century art” in an article about this urinal.
martay
+3
Level 70
Nov 4, 2023
Your expressed endorsement is totally irrelevant. By engaging and considering it, and ultimately rejecting it, you've actually validated it as art. It got in your head so much that you had to comment. I bet a random Manet or Greek marble or bone chinaware hasn't done that. That's part of what makes abstract art and Marcel Duchamp special.
CaptainUnderpant
+4
Level 79
Nov 5, 2023
I don't really get this. I understand that engaging with something is an act of attention that lends it more power even if the engagement is negative (like how hating a celebrity just brings them more publicity). But there's clearly something in the rejection as well. I've engaged with the notion that golf is a sport and ultimately rejected it, which doesn't seem to me to validate the notion. Engaging with it at all lends the debate some legitimacy, but I don't think that, regardless of the side you come down, you inevitably end up validating the topic of debate.

Any landscape painting from the 19th century has gotten in my head and stuck with me far more than "Fountain" has. Now that's some art!

MindWax
+2
Level 83
Jan 5, 2024
If I go to a restaurant, get served a big steaming turd on a plate, and reject it, I'm not rejecting its worthiness as a meal -- just by engaging, considering, and rejecting it, I've actually validated the chef. It just got in my head so much that I had to send it back.

A powerful statement, thanks martay.

Mookie
+5
Level 79
Oct 27, 2023
To answer the question - No.
AaronRussell
+3
Level 68
Oct 27, 2023
I'm shocked I only missed 2. I thought it was a coin flip each time...
Amilcar
+1
Level 65
Nov 6, 2023
Yeah I only got two wrong as well - which to me shows that when we're looking at things with a little consideration we can mostly descry meaning where it is intended. To me it validated the idea of these pieces as art.
Sifhraven
+1
Level 67
Mar 24, 2024
Nah it is mostly the staging that is a tell, whether it is consciously or subconsciously. I guess that is why so many people got the ladder wrong, because it stands alone in an empty room ( but for me the room was not pristine enough, the paint strokes gave it away that the room was an actual work in progress) a common set up for art pieces to make people think about the object.
toowise
+2
Level 78
Oct 28, 2023
Brilliant, just shows the absurdness of some art, everyone says "I could do better than that" but not many do. I wonder what, if any, criteria exist to decide if a random object is presented as art or not. Is it the artist, the setting, the design, or just the viewers perception that decides?
TheChosen
+5
Level 73
Oct 30, 2023
That's because most of us don't have friends in the international art circuit. You need to be known in this group before you can start the money laundering which is most of the modern art today.
Rivers12568
+1
Level 58
Nov 4, 2023
With Duchamp's case, it was very much the artist's intent that labeled it art. With Fountain specifically, he submitted it to an exhibition for the Society of Independent Artists. He paid the fee, so they couldn't reject it, but they didn't show it. It was only after a studio photo was taken of it that people knew it existed.

But fundamentally, what you're asking is the question that this sort of anti-art is supposed to make you ask. "Is this art? Why is this art, or why isn't it?" It sort of leaves it in your hands to decide what you consider art or not.

Is it art because it makes people feel something? A lot of people are revolted by Fountain, and those people wouldn't dare call it art. Is it art because it takes effort to make? Is it not art for the opposite reason? Does art have a variety of colors? Does symbolism make a work art? Does aesthetic beauty? On that note, is kitsch artful? Is Guernica by Picasso? As long as you're thinking about it, you won't be wrong.

HelenaHandbasket
+1
Level 65
Nov 6, 2023
I'm pretty sure the blacksmith would be insulted that his work isn't considered art.
Jango
+2
Level 64
Oct 28, 2023
I luuurrrvvvv this quiz! Thank you for giving me a huge laff on a dreich Saturday morning, Dimby, your quiz is a work of art.
TenThousand
+3
Level 76
Oct 28, 2023
Very very funny. Is this quiz something random, or a work of art?
bn9043
+2
Level 61
Nov 4, 2023
This quiz is absolutely a work of art.
GrammarBeane1
+3
Level 82
Oct 29, 2023
I was weirdly good at this. I don't know what that means about me
Dollyfroggy
+2
Level 60
Oct 29, 2023
Congratulations on the feature! Hopefully one of your older quizzes are next. I'm partial to the logic and vocabulary ones.
blizzrd33
+2
Level 79
Oct 30, 2023
I guess one person's trash is another person's art.
buck1017
+1
Level 77
Oct 30, 2023
I cannot BELIEVE that i got a perfect score.
AlexThirkell
+2
Level 75
Oct 31, 2023
I've been putting off taking this quiz because just from the title I knew I'd fail miserably. Finally took it, failed miserably, but genuinely enjoyed it! Thanks!
AllHailKingHomer
+1
Level 75
Nov 4, 2023
Jetpunk is stepping up the game yo
FreeStater
+2
Level 66
Nov 4, 2023
Awesome quiz. Really made me think.

What is art, anyways? Do you need to put effort into it, must it look beautiful? For that matter, must you even declare it art? Can art be accidental? I would say any form of human expression is art, even if that expression is surreal or of lacking it entirely. Thereby, everything humans do is art.

CaptainUnderpant
+2
Level 79
Nov 5, 2023
Seems just a touch too broad of a definition, don't you think? To me, The Birth of Venus and the Rwandan genocide exist under separate categories in my mind for some reason, can't put my finger on it...
RuthlessCosmo
+2
Level 72
Nov 4, 2023
When we moved into our new office there was (and still is) a fire extinguisher attached to a bracket on the wall. I put a small sign reading "Model for Monumental Fire Extinguisher by Claes Oldenburg" under it and . . . voila! a masterpiece.

(Google "Claes Oldenburg" if you've never seen his sculptures.)

bluesdjben
+1
Level 74
Nov 4, 2023
I'm surprised I got 100% on the first try. Most of them I was at least somewhat confident on, but there were a few where I could have easily talked myself into going the other way.
Amilcar
+2
Level 65
Nov 6, 2023
Yeah I got two wrong (one each way). To me that suggests that the artworks aren't quite as random as many people (and the joke behind this fun quiz) seem to think.
Sifhraven
+1
Level 67
Mar 24, 2024
It is the setting, if you saw them all in a pile or a store room or some old barn it would not be as easy. In a lot of cases the art is a random object taken away from its normal context or surroundings. An intentional way the "artist" is displaying it.

Even if you don't realise it, you pick up on these things subconsciouly. (like hey, this object seems to want to be making a point eventhough it is a random object).

(And not only would it not be so easy, in a lot of cases it would seize to be art and revert back to just being an object)

mikeisagenius
+2
Level 39
Nov 4, 2023
Wow, I recognize some of these from an old high school project I did on the Dada art movement! Didn't think I'd be able to use that knowledge again lol
Samthetard
+2
Level 44
Nov 4, 2023
if anyone needed any more proof that modern art is trash, look no further
Sifhraven
+1
Level 67
Mar 24, 2024
weirdly enough so many people thought that the trash ( the broken glass) was art. I was suprised at how low that scored
GlassMonkeyCode
+3
Level 67
Nov 4, 2023
You should have an empty picture for one of them.
Dimby
+3
Level 77
Nov 4, 2023
That’d be funny, but there are several famous pieces of art that are essentially a blank canvas! The whole Take the Money and Run debacle from 2021, for instance. Or Erased de Kooning Drawing would fit the bill, too!
jmellor13
+2
Level 67
Nov 7, 2023
Isn't there some famous piece where an artist actually painted a really detailed and skilled scene and then painted the whole canvas white over it? Some commentary about erasing beauty or something? I'm an art novice, but I could swear I have read about that.
Dimby
+1
Level 77
Nov 18, 2023
That’s rings a bell but I’m not sure who did it. 🤔
Zefyrinus
+1
Level 71
Nov 4, 2023
At first I thought that those were grooves on the iron. But now I think they're nails standing out. Which is it really? :S
Dimby
+2
Level 77
Nov 4, 2023
They are tacks that have been glued to the face of the iron. I’m sure that it is some profound message..,
RobNobody
+2
Level 77
Nov 4, 2023
What is art? Are we art? Is art art?
HBK97
+1
Level 75
Nov 4, 2023
Art? Seriously?
ogamer
+2
Level 64
Nov 4, 2023
These are all random objects. Next.
Sifhraven
+1
Level 67
Mar 24, 2024
Nah I quite like the chairs one. But as for the rest, yes I could do without.
Lemondance
+2
Level 67
Nov 4, 2023
To the credit of the artists, I only missed two (one was actually art, one was actually random). So on the whole, the intended art pieces were pretty recognizable as being art to me. Though I probably would've missed the shovel one as well if the lighting hadn't looked like an art gallery's lighting.
Sifhraven
+1
Level 67
Mar 24, 2024
and the fact that it was standing on its own, without leaning to a wall..
SaintCity
+3
Level 61
Nov 6, 2023
How many times can you feature Marcel Duchamps in one Quiz?

Dimby: Yes

(Nice quiz by the way)

FatSpartanJediLlama
+1
Level 67
Nov 6, 2023
Got 12/15, better than I expected
FatSpartanJediLlama
+1
Level 67
Nov 6, 2023
Just goes to show how subjective these things are
ilovedenmark
+1
Level 44
Nov 6, 2023
The fact that half of this is considered art is crazy. But this inspires me to make a simple line on a piece of paper, crumple it up and then call it "art" thank you for the idea.
jmellor13
+2
Level 67
Nov 7, 2023
"It's art. Anything is anything."
PakistainedPants
+1
Level 36
Nov 7, 2023
5/15
Blitz12
+1
Level 41
Nov 8, 2023
I can't believe the shovel was an art piece. I got it right too :skull:
Ferbin
+3
Level 76
Jan 18, 2024
Ah, ready-mades, the peak of laziness in art, followed by so much BS theorization that the word "art" has lost all of its meaning, cause if everything is art, then nothing is. Welcome to postmodernity. Thanks Duchamp.
TubsOfAcid
+2
Level 47
Jan 28, 2024
you know Duchamp was great when he still manages to piss people off a century later
elcampeador
+1
Level 78
Feb 19, 2024
Duchamp is keeping us all in business
Hibasi
+1
Level 67
Mar 25, 2024
You should make a version of this where every answer is a random object you own, then later see in the stats which was confused as art the most and make it public as your artwork
tombrady123555
+1
Level 16
Apr 12, 2024
A ball of yarn is art you can use it in an art class for sowing for example so you should edit the answer to be art
Dimby
+1
Level 77
Apr 12, 2024
You can derive purple paint from snail butts, too, and then use the purple paint to make art. That doesn't mean that snail butts are art, though.
khizerbaijan
+1
Level 53
Apr 14, 2024
the "Chairs for Abu Dhabi" looks magnificent, the only piece in here that deserves to be called art. the rest are hot garbage
Dimby
+1
Level 77
Apr 14, 2024
I put hours into that yarn!! 😭
TitusOfficial
+1
Level 36
Apr 21, 2024
I’m surprised all of them are not art. I mean art could be anything random nowadays. I miss the art from the renaissance from Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Shakespeare, especially the Mona Lisa painting. That’s the good old times in art.
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