Her changeable smile

August 20, 2008 6:08 PM

A collection of riffs on the Mona Lisa.
posted by prefpara (12 comments total)

I knew an artist who hand painted a Mona Lisa corpse (with obligatory worms coming out of the decaying skull) on the back of his trenchcoat. Very punk chic.
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:43 PM on August 20, 2008

It's like some kind of Mona Lisa overdrive!
posted by Artw at 6:50 PM on August 20, 2008

Rick Veitch is riffing on classic art for his second Army@Love series.
posted by beaucoupkevin at 7:56 PM on August 20, 2008

Is it just me, or does the Mona Lisa kinda look like George Washington? Particularly in that mooning picture...
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 8:18 PM on August 20, 2008

Somewhere I've got an LP of punk and new wave covers entitled "We Do 'Em Our Way," the cover of which features the Mona Lisa "modernized" with wild hair and a chain from nose to ear (album info here).

When I bought it, the modified Mona seemed less incongruous than sticking punk and new wave on the same album...
posted by Graygorey at 8:50 PM on August 20, 2008

Mona Lisa, Mona Lisa, men have named you
You're so like the lady with the mystic smile
Is it only cause you're lonely
They have blamed you?
For that Mona Lisa strangeness in your smile?

Do you smile to tempt a lover, Mona Lisa?
Or is this your way to hide a broken heart?
Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep
They just lie there
And they die there
Are you warm, are you real, Mona Lisa?
Or just a cold and lonely, lovely work of art?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:08 PM on August 20, 2008

Oh man, artw, now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head all night.

(This is a great post, thanks!)
posted by grapefruitmoon at 10:10 PM on August 20, 2008

I know the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
She knows what she wants and she wants something she knows she knows nothing
about

unfortunately the rest of my erstwhile poem is on lined paper 280 miles north of here, or I would share it all.

I do remember seeing the painting under glass, circa 1975. There had been a spate of art incursions, someone hitting Michelangelo's Pieta with a hammer and the like. Very hard to parse when you're thirteen.

But it's true, i do know the secret, and it's not that best seller thing.
posted by emhutchinson at 10:44 PM on August 20, 2008

missing two (personal flickr stream, but I didn't create 'em)
posted by slyrabbit at 6:15 AM on August 21, 2008

Every one is an improvement on the overhyped original, IMO.
posted by rocket88 at 7:14 AM on August 21, 2008

Duchamp's LHOOQ remains my favourite article of Dadaism. Horny, indeed.
posted by spamguy at 7:16 AM on August 21, 2008

There's simply no excuse for leaving out the most important one of all.
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:03 AM on August 21, 2008