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. Pioneered by him, 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 them and placing them in a gallery setting. In "L.H.O.O.Q." the objet trouvé (found object) is a cheap postcard reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" onto which Duchamp drew a mustache and beard in pencil and appended the title.

The name of the piece, "L.H.O.O.Q.", is a pun, since the letters when pronounced in French form the sentence, "Elle a chaud au cul." "Elle a chaud au cul" literally translates into "She has heat in the arse." In a late interview (Schwarz 203), Duchamp gave a loose translation of L.H.O.O.Q. as "there is fire down below" (in fact the term "avoir chaud au cul" is slang used in the sense of "to be horny").

As was the case with a number of his readymades, Duchamp made multiple versions of "L.H.O.O.Q." of differing sizes and in different media throughout his career, one of which, an unmodified black and white reproduction of the "Mona Lisa" mounted on card, is called "L.H.O.O.Q. Shaved".

Versions

*1918 - Private collection, Paris, on loan to the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
*1920 - Present location unknown.
*1930 - Large scale replica, private collection, Paris
*1940 - A color reproduction made from the original. It was stolen in 1981 and has not been recovered.
*1958 - Collection of Antoni Tapies, Barcelona.
*1960 - Oil on wood. In the collection of Dorothea Tanning, New York.
*1964 - Thirty-eight replicas made to be inserted into a limited edition of Pierre de Massot's "Marcel Duchamp, propos et souvenirs". Collection of Arturo Schwarz, Milan.
*1965 - "L.H.O.O.Q. Shaved" is a playing card reproduction of the Mona Lisa mounted on paper. The Mona Lisa painting is unmodified but for the inscription "LHOOQ rasée".