| L.H.O.O.Q. | |
|---|---|
 Marcel Duchamp, 1919,L.H.O.O.Q.[1] | |
| Artist | Marcel Duchamp |
| Year | 1919 (1919) |
| Type | Readymade (rectified) |
| Medium | Pencil on reproduction |
| Dimensions | 19.7 cm × 12.4 cm (7.8 in × 4.9 in) |
| Location | Various versions in multiple collections |
L.H.O.O.Q. (French pronunciation:[ɛlaʃooky]) is a work of art byMarcel Duchamp. First conceived in 1919, the work is one of what Duchamp referred to asreadymades, or more specifically a rectified[clarification needed] ready-made.[2] The readymade involves taking mundane, often utilitarian objects not generally considered to be art and transforming them, by adding to them, changing them, or (as in the case of his workFountain) simply renaming and reorienting them and placing them in an appropriate setting.[3] InL.H.O.O.Q. thefound object (objet trouvé) is a cheap postcard reproduction ofLeonardo da Vinci's early 16th-century paintingMona Lisa onto which Duchamp drew a moustache and beard in pencil and appended the title.[4]
The subject of theMona Lisa treated satirically had already been explored in 1887 byEugène Bataille (aka Sapeck) when he createdMona Lisa smoking a pipe, published inLe Rire.[5] It is not clear whether Duchamp was familiar with Bataille's interpretation.
The name of the piece,L.H.O.O.Q., is agramogram; the letters pronounced inFrench sound like "Elle a chaud au cul", "She is hot in thearse",[6] or "She has a hot ass";[7] "avoir chaud au cul" is a vulgar expression implying that a woman has sexual restlessness. In a late interview (Schwarz 203), Duchamp gives a loose translation ofL.H.O.O.Q. as "there is fire down below".
Francis Picabia, in attempting to publishL.H.O.O.Q. in his magazine391, could not wait for the work to be sent from New York City, so, with Duchamp's permission, he drew the moustache on Mona Lisa himself (forgetting the goatee). Picabia wrote underneath "Tableau Dada par Marcel Duchamp". Duchamp noticed the missing goatee. Two decades later, Duchamp corrected the omission on Picabia's replica, found byJean Arp at a bookstore. Duchamp drew the goatee in black ink with a fountain pen, and wrote "Moustache par Picabia / barbiche par Marcel Duchamp / avril 1942".[1]
As with many of his readymades, Duchamp made multiple versions ofL.H.O.O.Q. of differing sizes and in different media, one of which, an unmodified black-and-white reproduction of theMona Lisa mounted on card, is calledL.H.O.O.Q. Shaved. The masculinized female introduces the theme of gender reversal, which appealed to Duchamp, who adopted his own female pseudonym,Rrose Sélavy, pronounced "Eros, c'est la vie" ("Eros, that's life").[2]
Primary responses toL.H.O.O.Q. interpreted it as an attack on the iconicMona Lisa and traditional art,[8] a stroke ofépater le bourgeois promoting Dadaist ideals. According to one commentator:
The creation ofL.H.O.O.Q. profoundly transformed the perception of La Joconde (what the French call the painting, in contrast with the Americans and Germans, who call it theMona Lisa). In 1919 the cult ofJocondisme was practically a secular religion of the French bourgeoisie and an important part of their self image as patrons of the arts. They regarded the painting with reverence, and Duchamp's salacious comment and defacement was a major stroke ofepater le bourgeois ("freaking out" or substantially offendingthe bourgeois).[9]
According toRhonda Roland Shearer, the apparent reproduction is in fact a copy partly modeled on Duchamp's own face.[10]
The use of computers permitted new forms of parodies ofL.H.O.O.Q., including interactive ones.
One form of computerized parody using the Internet juxtaposes layers over the original, on a webpage. In one example, the original layer isMona Lisa. The second layer is mostly transparent but opaque in some places (for example, where Duchamp located the moustache), obscuring the original layer. This technology is described at the George Washington University Law School website.[14] An example of this technology is a copy ofMona Lisa with a series of different superpositions—first Duchamp's moustache, then an eyepatch, then a hat, a hamburger, and so on.[15] The point of this technology (which is explained on the website for a copyright law class) is that it permits a parody that need not involve making an infringing copy of the original work if it simply uses an inline link to the original, which is presumably on an authorized webpage.[16] According to the website at which the material is located:
The layers paradigm is significant in a computer-related or Internet context because it readily describes a system in which the person ultimately responsible for creating the composite (here, corresponding to [a modern-day] Duchamp) does not make a physical copy of the original work in the sense of storing it in permanent form (fixed as a copy) distributed to the end user. Rather, the person distributes only the material of the subsequent layers, [so that] the aggrieved copyright owner (here, corresponding to Leonardo da Vinci) distributes the material of the underlying [originalMona Lisa] layer, and the end user's system receives both. The end user's system then causes a temporary combination, in its computer RAM and the user's brain. The combination is a composite of the layers. Framing and superimposition of popup windows exemplify this paradigm.[17]
Other computer-implemented distortions ofL.H.O.O.Q. orMona Lisa reproduce elements of the original, thereby creating an infringing reproduction if the underlying work is protected by copyright.[18] Leonardo's rights inMona Lisa would, of course, have long expired had such rights existed in his age.
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