A glimpse at how art has come into existence, from the Mona Lisa to contemporary art🖼

I am grateful to have put my reading material towards a topic outside the usual Alex collection of books, The Annotated Mona Lisa: A Crash Course in Art History from Prehistoric to Post-Modern by Carol Strickland and John Boswell. Walking around Vancouver and taking in the neat street art near Main Street is enjoyable, and I recommend this as an activity to explore Vancouver. This book went toughly into art history, and for me, it was hard to comprehend or relate to as art comes in many different mediums, not just paintings or photos, and most of this book focused on these types of mediums. However, I was shocked to learn that in 1917 the artist Marcel Duchamp constructed a standard urinal that went on display with the words R. Mutt and the date written on the toilet. This gives new meaning to beauty in the eye of the beholder, and one person's trash is another's treasure. I encourage you to look at this video to quickly understand how this urinal impacted art in the twentieth century. 

 My favorite quotes from the book The Annotated Mona Lisa 

"Eat well, kiss well, work ditto and you'll die happy." - Paul Gauguin 

"I would rather die of passion than boredom." - Vincent Van Gogh