About Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp in 1919 took a reproduction postcard of the Mona Lisa and drew a mustache and goatee on it with pencil. This was part of his “ready-made” movement in connection with DaDa. [1]
“The title riffs on the French pronunciation of the letters, “Elle a chaud au cul,” which roughly translates as “She has a hot ass.” Rather than transmuting an ordinary, manufactured object into a work of art, as in the bulk of his readymades, in L.H.O.O.Q Duchamp starts with the representation of an iconic masterpiece that he takes down from its pedestal by playfully debunking it. In endowing the Mona Lisa with masculine attributes, he alludes to Leonardo’s purported homosexuality and gestures at the androgynous nature of creativity. Duchamp is clearly concerned here with gender role-reversals, which later come to the fore in Man Ray’s portraits of the artist dressed as his female alter ego, Rrose Selavy.”
Collotype – Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam [2]
The Pieces
Leonardo da Vinci: Mona Lisa
[3]
Marcel Duchamp: LHOOQ
[4]
Leonardo da Vinci’s Support Personel:
Workers in Leonardo’s Studio
Maker of paint
Maker of paint brushers
Maker of canvas
Maker of gesso
Marcel Duchamp’s Support Personel:
Workers in Leonardo’s Studio
Maker of paint
Maker of paint brushers
Maker of canvas
Maker of gesso
Leonardo Da Vinci
Postcard reproduction company
Pencil maker
Works Cited
[1] LaFarge, Antoinette. “The Bearded Lady and the Shaven Man: Mona Lisa, Meet” Mona/Leo”” Leonardo 29, no. 5 (1996): 379-83. doi:10.2307/1576403.
[2] http://www.theartstory.org/artist-duchamp-marcel-artworks.htm
[3] http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/24/19/0DC0A5F000000578-0-Experts_believe_th
