Guillaume Apollinaire was arrested for allegedly stealing the Mona Lisa in 1911.

Guillaume Apollinaire was a poet, writer and strong supporter of avant-garde art movements. His background is little known, but it is believed he was originally from Rome and moved to Paris in his early twenties. In his support of avant-garde art, Apollinaire published a book titled The Cubist Painters, which analyzed the movement and the psychology of the painters behind it. The key concept of Cubism is that the essence of objects can only be captured by showing them from multiple points of view simultaneously. Apollinaire's secretive nature, paired with what were then considered his radical views on art, psychology and writing, led authorities in Paris to regard him as a dangerous foreigner. Thus, when the Mona Lisa disappeared from the Louvre museum in 1911, Apollinaire was detained as a chief suspect. When authorities could find no evidence to support their suspicions, Apollinaire was released. Two years later, a former Louvre employee was arrested while trying to sell the painting to an art dealer. Apollinaire, in the meantime, became a French citizen and served in the French infantry in World War I. He continued to promote new and interesting art forms, coining the term "surrealism," a style in which fantastic visual imagery from the subconscious mind is used in a free-form sort of work that is not meant to be logically understood. It is difficult to see, in retrospect, what interest Apollinaire would have had in the Mona Lisa, unless it was the mystery of her smile and the differing perceptions that people used to interpret it.

Science NetLinks
In the Science Update Mona Lisa's Smile (6–12), students learn about how the way we look at something can often change our perception of it. Students examine the use of pixilated painting and peripheral vision to understand spatial frequency in art.

Art conservation is traditionally a painstaking and time-consuming business. But the process of restoring a damaged Da Vinci or a scarred Seurat may become a lot easier, thanks to the work of mathematicians. Find out why in Art Algorithms (6–12).

ARTSEDGE
Let's Talk About Painting (K–4) introduces young students to the elements of the arts and teaches them to use appropriate vocabulary when discussing paintings.

Apollinaire was a serious advocate for the arts, particularly avant-garde art movements. ARTSEDGE offers advice to teachers and students about arts advocacy in Exercise Your Influence for the Arts and Student Champions for the Arts.