Marcel Duchamp, the father of modern Western conceptual art, based his entire career as an artist on the concept of wit. His concept of the readymade - the transformation of an everyday object into a work of art by virtue of the artist proclaiming it to be so - was an act of unsurpassed wit that revolutionized the history of art. Games, with their arbitrary structures and absurd logic fascinated him and word games - puns in particular -  abound in his oeuvre. Duchamp created L.H.O.O.Q. (1919), by taking an ordinary reproduction of the Mona Lisa and adding a moustache, goatee, and a lascivious pun. ( The letters L.H.O.O.Q. when read aloud in French sound like: 'Elle a chaud au cul' and in English - they would be read aloud as LOOK. )

Museums and Art Galleries:

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Guggenheim Museum

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Fountain, 1917 (1964)

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
Fontaine, 1917

Musée Maillol, France

Musée Maillol, France
LHOOQ (Mona Lisa with a moustache and goatee)

Palazzo Grassi, Venice

Walker Art Center

Walker Art Center
Interview with the artist (RealAudio format)