Mona Lisa in a crowded Louvre

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size: 6ft x 6ft
Creation Date: 2024
Collection: Black and White

“Mona Lisa in a crowded Louvre' balances chaos and clarity, each stroke a step through abstraction’s wild terrain.”

Mona Lisa in a crowded Louvre (2024) is a reflection on looking — and being looked at. This 72 x 72 inch monochromatic acrylic painting from the Black and White Collection captures the tension between icon and audience, myth and moment, reverence and spectacle.

At the heart of the composition is a rectangular form — the suggestion of a painting — obscured by gestural marks, overlapping circles, camera flashes, and blurred silhouettes. It is not a depiction of da Vinci’s portrait, but a field of interruptions and echoes. White glazes simulate reflected light; smudged blacks evoke shifting crowds and fleeting glances.

I created this work after observing the Mona Lisa in person — or rather, observing people observing her. The painting became secondary to the crowd. Everyone looking. No one seeing. That contradiction fascinated me.

Inspired by the conceptual strategies of On Kawara and the visual layering of Julie Mehretu, this piece merges performance and memory. The crowd becomes the subject. The icon becomes an absence.

Mona Lisa in a crowded Louvre is not about the painting. It’s about what the painting means in the age of spectatorship.

Ritu Raj | Contemporary Abstract Artist | Phoenix

After 30 years as an executive and entrepreneur, I returned to painting full-time to explore what words and strategy couldn’t hold. I create bold, expressive abstract art to shift how we see and feel—opening space for reflection, connection, and quiet transformation. For me, change begins not with certainty, but with listening.

https://www.rituart.com/
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