A wink, perhaps, to Duchamp’s modified Mona Lisa, L.H.O.O.Q. (1919), Man Ray reproduced Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic self-portrait. Underlining its nature as copy, a rough black and white reproduction with sepia overlay replaces the fine detail in red chalk of the original. Like Duchamp’s mocking additions of mustache and goatee to the Mona Lisa, Ray creates an assisted readymade by adding a comical smoldering cigar. The authorial power of da Vinci is further undermined by naming him merely as the “father” of his most famous painting.

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