The Works of René Magritte

Context

The Son of Man

René Magritte was born in 1898 and died in 1967. He was born in Belgium. Magritte was educated at Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. Surrealism is the major technique and genre of art that Magritte focuses on. Surrealism was a major art movement in the 20th century. Its purpose is to show the audience how their mind can be creative unconsciously. The audience’s mind is allowed to wander while contemplating a piece of art. Many surrealist artists convey this message by creating a juxtaposition between two realistic elements in the piece of art. Many times, especially in surrealist paintings, there is a realistic element paired with another element, but they are related in a very nonrealistic way. For example, one of Magritte’s most famous paintings is The Son of Man. In this painting, a man is depicted with an apple floating in front of his face. While these two objects exist, the situation is impossible. Some other famous surrealists are Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, and Pablo Picasso Along with Surrealism, Magritte also utilizes bright colors, flat looking illustrations, and simple figures to covey the meaning of the pieces. Because of the lack of excessive detail, the audience is really able to develop their own ideas about the piece.

The Treachery of Images

How the Artist Conveys the Meaning

One theme throughout Magritte’s works is Surrealism itself. Everything is not as it seems. This can have some philosophical, specifically Platonic, ties to it as well. One of Magritte’s famous painting is of a pipe. However below the drawing of the pipe reads “Ceci nest pas une pipe” or “This is not a pipe.” This tells the audience that the drawing of a thing is not the thing itself. Putting it into philosophical terms, the drawing is nearly a representation of the form. The particular can only be represented through the physical existence of, in this case, a pipe. Another theme that is presented in many of Magritte’s paintings is a sense of questioning and mystery. His works are supposed to bring about a sense of mystery and madness. The audience is not supposed to simply interpret one thing from the painting. Likewise, everyone has completely different understandings of the same piece of art. Each piece is meant to be very complex and confusing to the audience. This simply adds to the theme of questions and mystery. Magritte did not paint a definite subject that was meant to covey a particular meaning. He purposefully left the interpretations to the audience. 

Why I Find it Beautiful

Le Blanc Seing

I personally find beauty in perspective. I always try to see different pieces of art from a new angle. This often gives insight into what the artist meant for the painting to mean. However, this is not the case with Magritte. In fact, the meaning is totally based on the audience, not the artist. The fact that Magritte purposely added this aspect to his paintings is very interesting. For example, my favorite Magritte painting is Le Blanc Seing or The Blank Check in English. This painting depicts a lady raining a horse through the woods. While this idea does not seem out of the ordinary, the way it is presented is very unique. First of all, the title does not in any way reflect the subject of the painting. This is true for many of Magritte’s paintings. The horse and the trees seem to be almost woven in a way that cannot be physically obtained. It creates almost an optical illusion that can easily be interpreted in multiple different ways. This ties into another way that I find Magritte’s work beautiful. Sometimes, there is no answer, and that is beautiful. The fact that we will never know what the definite answer is mind boggling. We always seem to so busy trying to find solutions. It is nice to know that somethings do not have solutions, and that is perfectly okay.