Title of Artwork: “LHOOQ”
Artwork by Marcel Duchamp
Year Created 1919
Summary of LHOOQ
An altered postcard copy of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa serves as Marcel Duchamp’s scandalous L.H.O.O.Q. Duchamp added a moustache and a goatee to Mona Lisa’s upper lip and chin for this “assisted” readymade (implying manipulation as opposed to the “unassisted” version) and retitled the piece.
All About LHOOQ
‘Elle a chaud au cul’ is a play on the French pronunciation of the letters, which means’she’s got a hot ass.’
While most of Duchamp’s readymades start with a depiction of a famous work of art, with L.H.O.O.Q he begins by discrediting it and knocking it off its pedestal in a humorous manner.
He refers to Leonardo’s alleged homosexuality and the androgynous nature of creation by giving the Mona Lisa male features. Man Ray’s photographs of the artist dressed as his female alter ego, Rrose Selavy, show that Duchamp was interested in gender role reversals.
Information Citations
En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.
