Art poll takes the pissoir for posteriority

ARTISTS took the pissoir this week, naming an upside-down urinal as the most influential modern art work of all time.

Marcel Duchamp’s famous 1917 work, Fountain, has inspired artists from Damien Hirst to Tracey Emin. It came top in a poll of 500 members of the art world carried out in the run-up to next week’s Turner Prize, beating Picasso, Matisse and Andy Warhol.

Duchamp took a white gents’ urinal, signed it and put it on display, declaring that art could take any form.