objet trouvé

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 9, 2015 is: objet trouvé • \AWB-zhay-troo-VAY\  • noun : a natural or discarded object found by chance and held to have aesthetic value Examples: "Architects, too, have discovered found objects—usually substantial buildings like barns, firehouses, power stations, train depots—but the objet trouvé that Robert A. M. Stern recently transformed into a writers' penthouse and all-purpose retreat from his office below was a humble, metal-clad storage shed…." — Joseph Giovannini, Architectural Digest, July 2007 "The American sculptor Judith Scott literally concealed things: each of her cocoonlike constructions began with an objet trouvé—an umbrella, a skateboard, a tree branch, her own jewelry—around which she wound layers and layers and layers of yarn, twine, and strips of textiles until the item's identity was obscured." — Andrea K. Scott, The New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2014 Did you know? Objet trouvé comes from French, where it literally means "found object." The term entered English during the early 20th century, a time when many artists challenged traditional ideas about the nature of true art. Surrealists and other artists, for instance, held that any object could be a work of art if a person recognized its aesthetic merit. Objet trouvé can refer to naturally formed objects whose beauty is the result of natural forces as well as to man-made artifacts (such as bathtubs, wrecked cars, or scrap metal) that were not originally created as art but are displayed as such. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.