Marcel Duchamp, among the most influential artists of his generation, in 1919 may have inadvertently set the standard for modern manifestations of Mona Lisa simply by adding a goatee to an existing postcard print of Leonardo's original. Duchamp pioneered the concept of readymades, which involves taking mundane objects not generally considered to be art and transforming them artistically, sometimes by simply renaming them and placing them in a gallery setting. In L.H.O.O.Q. the "found object" is a Mona Lisa postcard onto which Duchamp drew a goatee in pencil and appended the title.
The title, Duchamp is said to have admitted in his later years, is a pun. The letters L-H-O-O-Q pronounced in French form the sentence Elle a chaud au cul, colloquially translating into English as "She has a hot ass."As was the case with many of his readymades, Duchamp made multiple versions of L.H.O.O.Q. in varying sizes and media throughout his career. An unmodified black and white reproduction of Mona Lisa on a playing-card, onto which Duchamp in 1965 inscribed LHOOQ rasée (LHOOQ Shaved), is among many second-generation variants referencing the original L.H.O.O.Q.
Duchamp's parody of Mona Lisa was itself parodied by Francis Picabia in 1942, annotated Tableau Dada Par Marcel Duchamp ("Dadaist Scene for Marcel Duchamp"), another example of second-generation interpretations of Mona Lisa. Salvador Dalí created his Self Portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954, referencing L.H.O.O.Q. in collaboration with Philippe Halsman, incorporating his photographs of a wild-eyed Dalí showing his handlebar moustache and a handful of coins. In 1958, Icelandic painter Erró then incorporated Dalí's version into a composition which also included a film-still from Dalí's Un Chien Andalou. Fernand Léger and René Magritte are among the numbers of Modern art masters who've adapted Mona Lisa using their own iconography.[2] None of the parodies have tarnished Mona Lisa's image; rather, they reinforce her fame.[2] Duchamp's mustached Mona Lisa embellishment continues to inspire imitation. Contemporary conceptual artist Subodh Gupta gave L.H.O.O.Q. three-dimensional form in his 2009 bronze sculpture Et tu, Duchamp? Gupta, from India, considers himself an "idol thief" and has reinterpreted a number of iconic works from European art history.
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