“It’s Art If I Say So”
Marcel Duchamp’s Legacy in the Hirshhorn Collection
Marcel Duchamp, L.H.O.O.Q., 1919/1964
View moreAppropriation
Appropriation—the act of selecting an existing image for use in another artwork—was one of the major tenets anchoring Marcel Duchamp’s practice. Among Duchamp’s most infamous appropriations is L.H.O.O.Q., 1919/1964, a reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s renowned painting Mona Lisa, 1503-1519 to which he added facial hair and the caption “L.H.O.O.Q.,” French wordplay that translates roughly to “There is a fire down below.” By removing an iconic image from its original context and using it to make his own artwork, Duchamp challenged venerable conventions of originality, authorship, taste, and the value of a unique artwork. The artists whose artworks are shown here employed various approaches to appropriating preexisting imagery, offering hints of Duchamp’s transformative impact.
