Fountain
Artist:
Hills Snyder
(American, born 1950)
Date: 2010
Dimensions:
Beer can without tag: 5 1/2 × 2 1/8 in. (14 × 5.4 cm)
Beer can with tag: 5 1/2 × 8 1/2 × 2 1/8 in. (14 × 21.6 × 5.4 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of One Kind Favor
Object number: 2010.34
Copyright: © Hills Snyder
Label Text
This Lone Star beer can is part of a conceptual artwork enacted by Hills Snyder in response to an exhibition held at San Antonio’s Artpace in 2010. Curated by Jens Hoffmann, On the Road featured iconic representations of the American southwest and road trip culture. Additionally, Hoffmann included artifacts collected on his own road trip across Texas. A tumbleweed, a Stetson hat, this vintage beer can (found in nearby Hondo), among others were labeled and displayed in vitrines.
To further examine themes of journey, the mythology of the American west, Texan identity, and museum display, Snyder followed Hoffmann’s route in reverse and “repatriated” the Texana artifacts. Along the way, he photographed the Lone Star can in front of the Mutt Hutt pet spa in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and atop a urinal in Langtry, Texas, in homage to Marcel Duchamp—the French artist who, under the pseudonym R. Mutt, infamously presented a urinal as a readymade sculpture titled Fountain (1917). Snyder ultimately returned the can to its presumed place of origin (the historic Lone Star Brewery, now SAMA) with a notarized certificate of authenticity and it was accessioned into the museum collection.
(Lana Meador, 2023)
To further examine themes of journey, the mythology of the American west, Texan identity, and museum display, Snyder followed Hoffmann’s route in reverse and “repatriated” the Texana artifacts. Along the way, he photographed the Lone Star can in front of the Mutt Hutt pet spa in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and atop a urinal in Langtry, Texas, in homage to Marcel Duchamp—the French artist who, under the pseudonym R. Mutt, infamously presented a urinal as a readymade sculpture titled Fountain (1917). Snyder ultimately returned the can to its presumed place of origin (the historic Lone Star Brewery, now SAMA) with a notarized certificate of authenticity and it was accessioned into the museum collection.
(Lana Meador, 2023)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
