L.H.O.O.Q.

L.H.O.O.Q. is a work of art by Marcel Duchamp. First conceived in 1919, the work is one of what Duchamp referred to as readymades, or more specifically a rectified ready-made. 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 most famous work Fountain) simply renaming and reorienting them and placing them in an appropriate setting. In L.H.O.O.Q. the found object (objet trouvé) is a cheap postcard reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's early 16th-century painting Mona Lisa onto which Duchamp drew a moustache and beard in pencil and appended the title. Overview The subject of the Mona Lisa treated satirically had already been explored in 1887 by (aka Sapeck) when he created Mona Lisa smoking a pipe, published in Le Rire. It is not clear, however, if Duchamp was familiar with Sapeck's work. The name of the piece, L.H.O.O.Q., is a gramogram; the letters pronounced in French sound like "Elle a chaud au cul", "She is hot in the arse", or "She has a hot ass"; "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 of L.H.O.O.Q. as "there is fire down below".