Sunday, May 24, 2020

Bansky and the Mona Lisa


Mona Lisa parodies have been my hobby for many years. It's been a while since I web searched to see how the genre was being advanced. Today I randomly started a search about such works of the street artist Bansky, who has used the Mona Lisa image in several famous ways. The bazooka-toting Mona Lisa in the second row of this google image collage is probably the best known of his Mona Lisa works.

An article titled "Five of Banksy’s most infamous pranks" described how Bansky "saw it fitting to put his version of the painting up in Paris’s Louvre. The Banksy twist was that his version had a yellow, acid-smiley face, and he dubbed it 'Mona Lisa Smile.'" (link)

Bansky's Mona Lisa Smile. 
A notorious Bansky graffiti.
Another Bansky Mona Lisa.
Parodies of Parodies: Several other artists have actually made parodies of the more famous Bansky parodies. I am extra fond of the surrealist and dada aspects of all Mona Lisa imitators and satirists, maybe starting with Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q. So I love these:


I"m not sure if Bansky himself did this or if it's a parody!
Whatever.
Of course someone had to do this.

All these images are from web searches,  used as part of my commentary,
but the blog post is by mae sander for maefood dot blog spot dot com.

12 comments:

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

How wonderful. I've seen a few Bansky's, but never the Mona Lisa. Great choices.

Mariette VandenMunckhof-Vedder said...

Dearest Mae,
Love the muzzled Mona Lisa...
Hugs,
Mariette

kwarkito said...

la mona lisa du haut me réjouit particulièrement. je ne connaissais pas ce travail de banksy. j'avais publié le 28 mars 2018 un collage dans le même esprit sur le tableau de Rembrandt "la guilde des drapiers.J'aime beaucoup vos collections de mona lisa (il faudrait que je me décide à publier quelques variations que j'ai faites avec elle. Bonne semaine dans votre paradisiaque prison

Bertiebo said...

I still like them

Tandy | Lavender and Lime (http://tandysinclair.com) said...

I've never seen these Banksy images. Of course the mask one was inevitable.

Jim said...

Bizarre.

Stevenson Q said...

Oh Mae these are very interesting. Proves that the Mona Lisa is probably the most famous artwork in the world.

Sami said...

They are quite fun Mae. Thanks for participating :)

Marg said...

Banksy is certainly always interesting!

Iris Flavia said...

Looove these!

Sharon said...

Oh my gosh, these are great! How fun. There is a painting at the Phoenix Art Museum of a pregnant Mona Lisa. I'll have to feature it on my blog one of these days.

Jeanie said...

This post was so much fun, Mae. I love your Monas -- and this is such a fun way to look at it!