The two pieces of work which I have chosen to analyze for my paper would happen to be Leonardo daVinci’s Mona Lisa and Marcel Duchamp’s L.H.O.O.Q. My initial reasoning for choosing these two specific pieces of art are pretty obvious, considering the blatant relationship between the two. I would say to take a look at the Mona Lisa, but it is such a well known piece of art that the image of it has been engraved upon our collective consciousness as a society. It is a famous image of that enigmatic woman, which is seen as beautiful, traditional art. L.H.O.O.Q. is the same picture with a goatee and mustache drawn on and titled with a rude, French pun. To put it simply, I find the latter work pretty funny and am interested in it; when you have to analyze something and write about it, I feel you cannot be bored with it, otherwise those who read your writing will be as bored as you were writing it.
In addition, it’s only fair to mention that comparing the two can lead to interesting ideas being drawn. The Mona Lisa is a timeless and classic work of art, whereas L.H.O.O.Q. was spawned by an art movement meant to spit in the face of traditional ideas of art, or at the very least make people question what it is that we consider to be art. An original and a mockery of it, the accepted and the revolutionary, the Mona Lisa and a postcard with a doodle on top: two pieces that are so aesthetically similar and yet so far apart in meaning.

 

Mary Yanez