The artwork, titled “L.H.O.O.Q.” and created by Marcel Duchamp in 1919, employs the medium of pencil and ready-made materials. It is a portrait measuring 19.7 x 12.4 cm and belongs to the Dada art movement. This notable piece is currently housed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
The artwork features a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous “Mona Lisa,” to which Duchamp has provocatively added a moustache and goatee. This intervention transforms the iconic portrait into a playful and irreverent commentary, characteristic of the Dada movement, which sought to challenge traditional artistic conventions and norms. The title “L.H.O.O.Q.” further adds to the humorous and subversive nature of the piece, often translated into a humorous French pun. Duchamp’s choice of a ready-made image and his modest modifications underscore his revolutionary approach to art-making, emphasizing the conceptual over the purely aesthetic, and provoking thought about the nature and value of art itself.
