This rare photograph surfaced in our archives recently and shows a work-in-progress (circa 1988) by artist Norman Conquest: The Bride Shaved Bare by Her Bachelor, Even. The photo was taken in the artist's studio in New York City. A tribute to Marcel Duchamp, the work includes five altered reproductions of the Mona Lisa which depicts her in the act of growing a moustache and goatee and then shaving them off. The mixed media work incorporates human hair and blood-stained tissue paper. A handwritten note by the artist to himself (at left of the third image) reads: "Caution -check this panal (sic) for loose hairs prior to framing."
The finished work, cropped vertically, is approximately four feet high and resides in a private collection. Bride was, in fact, the artist's final work as a bachelor for he married the painter Sheila Young shortly afterwards in San Diego.
