Marcel Duchamp - L.H.O.O.Q.

1919
Private Collection, Paris

reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa
with added mustache, goatee, and title
19.7 x 12.4 cm

(click to enlarge)

L.H.O.O.Q. is the most illustrious icon of dadaismus and by extension, the ignition of deconstructvism in visual arts. The artwork is a photographic reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's Gioconda in the size of a postcard, scribbled by Duchamp himself. The moustache, the goatee beard and the title mischievously masks the ready-made into another symbol, which itself should be praised like the original.

In addiction to that, the pencil marks also alludes to Leonardo's homossexuality (the artist was almost burned alive for sodomy in Florence, 1476, but was saved by an influent friend) and to the rumours that Mona Lisa had been painted after his own semblance.The discourteous title is actually a phrase underlying the double-crossing letters, if read in french, it sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul" or "Her ass is on fire".

Although all the international fame of Mona Lisa, it appears that Duchamp's artwork choice for degradation could also be personal, his friend Guillaume Apollinaire was accused to steal Monalisa from the Louvre in 1911.

Marcel Duchamp never considered himself a professional painter, the act of painting was rather arduous in his eyes. He hated the fact of making a pitcure in 10 or 5 minutes, something quite fashionable in the 20th century and eventually retired himself from the art scene.