1. “La Clairvoyance” – René Magritte, 1936
The funny, far-out visions of surrealists, such as René Magritte and Salvador Dali, influenced decades of graphic humor, from New Yorker cartoons to Monty Python and beyond. In this self-portrait, Magritte demonstrates his forward-thinking wit by studying an egg to paint the bird-to-be.
2. “The Flatterers” – Pieter Brueghel the Younger, 1592
Pieter Brueghel the Elder was known as “Peasant Brueghel,” for his chaotic lower-class life in the Netherlands, while his first son, Brueghel the Younger, was known as “Hell Brueghel,” for all his depictions of bleaker subjects. In this painting, Hell Brueghel takes a break from the flames to show off his dark wit, and coins a timeless visual metaphor for suck-ups.
3. “The Experts” – Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps, 1837
When the French Academy of Painting rejected a number of works by Decamps for being too experimental, he responded with this loving painting. It depicts several serious art critics in chimpanzee glory, over-analyzing a baroque landscape. This style, where monkeys mimic human behavior is called a singerie, and is apparent in art traced back to ancient Egypt.
4. “Parody of the Fauve Painters” – Robert W. Chanler, 1913
When the 1913 Armory Show brought work by Duchamp, Picasso, and Matisse to New York for their first major show, not all viewers appreciated their style. Chanler, a local artist and hobnobber, took particular offense with Matisse’s bold, wildly-painted nudes and painted “Parody of the Fauve Painters,” a singerie which casts Matisse as head chimp, surrounded by some adoring students and controversial canvases.
5. “Youths Making a Face” – Adriaen Brouwer, 1632-35
Dutch Golden Age artists loved kinetic scenes of daily life, some idealized, others not so much. The crude, mocking boy in this painting might stand in for a crude, mocking painter; Brouwer, known for his unkempt appearance, once bought a fancy suit for a wedding, showed up for dinner, and immediately starting wiping food all over his new clothes. “Since it was the suit, rather than the man wearing it, that had been invited, it deserves to feast on the food,” Brouwer said.
6. “Escaping Criticism” – Pere Borrell del Caso, 1874
Preempting the surrealists, Spain’s del Caso blurred the lines between reality and image with this bug-eyed boy’s desperate escape from his gallery prison. Such a convincing trompe-l’oleil (optical illusion) might have baffled as many 19th century viewers as it amused, although modern internet users probably understand the need to flee from the trolls.
7. “L.H.O.O.Q.” – Marcel Duchamp, 1919
Famous for having once submitted a store-brought urinal to an art exhibition, Duchamp made waves with his satiric “readymades”: pre-manufactured objects slightly modified to take on new meaning. In this painting, Duchamp jokes about Renaissance values by penciling a Van Dyke onto Da Vinci’s masterpieces. The title is a joke too: spoken out loud, the letters mimic the French phrase “Elle a chaud au cul,” which literally translates to, “She is hot in the behind.”
