Rhonda Roland Shearer  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

The avant-garde art world has made note of the undeniable fact of the Mona Lisa's popularity. Because of the painting's overwhelming stature, Dadaists and Surrealists often produce modifications and caricatures. Already in 1883, Le rire, an image of a Mona Lisa smoking a pipe, by Sapeck (Eugène Bataille), was shown at the "Incoherents" show in Paris. In 1919, Marcel Duchamp, one of the most influential modern artists, created L.H.O.O.Q., a Mona Lisa parody made by adorning a cheap reproduction with a moustache and a goatee, as well as adding the rude inscription, when read out loud in French sounds like "Elle a chaud au cul" (literally translated: "she has a hot ass". This is a manner of implying the woman in the painting is in a state of sexual excitement and availability). This was intended as a Freudian joke, referring to Leonardo's alleged homosexuality. According to Rhonda R. Shearer, the apparent reproduction is in fact a copy partly modelled on Duchamp's own face.

French artist Jean Metzinger, who was influenced by Fauvism and Impressionism, painted Le Goûter ("The Taste", 1911), showing a female nude drinking tea, which is often called the "Mona Lisa of Cubism", a movement that the painter was associated with from 1908, and in fact he was influenced by Da Vinci's picture. The influence of the Mona Lisa goes beyond painting, reaching the film composition of The General Line (1929), by Eisenstein, who said he was also influenced by the Madonna of the Rocks.

Salvador Dalí, famous for his surrealist work, painted Self portrait as Mona Lisa in 1954. In 1963 following the painting's visit to the United States, Andy Warhol created serigraph prints of multiple Mona Lisas called Thirty are Better than One, like his works of Marilyn Monroe (Twenty-five Coloured Marilyns, 1962), Elvis Presley (1964) and Campbell's soup (1961–1962).

A severe case of ptosis.

Nude with Snail Breasts[1] (1967) by Salvador Dali, from Dali illustre Casanova, a book published by Cercle du livre précieux.

Dali, série de lithographie sur le thème du marquis de Sade

Le Marquis de Sade (1968, 25 lithographs);

This Suite contains 25 titles. Click on a thumbnail image for a larger image

1. "A Miserable Flat"
2. "Adelaide's Promise"
3. "All's Well That Ends Well"
4. "The Arrival of Dumont"
5. "As Pure As Her Heart"
6. "Brave Cecile"
7. "Cecile Receives Germeuil's Letter"
8. "Cecile's Chastity"
9. "The Chevalier's Dream of Cecile"
10. "The Chevaliers Proposal"
11. "The Crime"
12. "Damis and Durval"
13. "Damis's Dilemma"
14. "The Death of Clorinda"
15. "Dumont and Marton"
16. "Marianne and the Chevalier"
17. "Merville and His Sons Reunited"
18. "The Obsequies for Clorinda"
19. "The Prison"
20. "Protect Her From Misfortune's Mistakes"
21. "The Siege of Jerusalem"
22. "Tancred's Choice"
23. "Tancred's Oath"
24. "The Twins Outwit Damis"
25. "Without Hope"