René Magritte

René Magritte

“We question pictures,” said Paul Nougé, “before listening to them, we question them at random. And we are astonished when the reply we had expected is not forthcoming.” (Histoire de ne pas rire. Brussels: Les Levres Nues, 1956. P. 279)

The simplicity of his work is misleading, and for this our expectations and demands for answers within “art” are not given up so easily. 

Within the art movement of surrealism, he was no conformist. He strongly opposed self-projection and self-expression. To him his work stemmed from the revelations of the mystery of the visible world. It was this world, the “real” one, that fed his fascination. He did not need to draw from dreams, hallucinations, strange phenomena. Although, preconsciousness (the state before and during waking up) did play an important role in this work.

More often than not, Magritte chose ordinary things to construct his work – trees, chairs, tables, doors, windows, shoes, landscapes, people. He wanted to be understand by these ordinary things, he did not seek to be obscure. Although on the contrary, he sought through shock and surprise to liberate our conventional vision from its own obscurity.

Le Model Rouge II, 1937

Oil on canvas, 72x53.5”

Magritte’s friend Paul Nougé noted a social criticism, the destructive influence which social conditions imposed on us have on human relationships. And Magritte wanted to make clear that these perverted relationships also concern ordinary, everyday things which we assume are “at our service”, but which actually rule us, control us every day. Thus – there is a power of shoes over men.

In the painting here, the gravel teamed with the unpainted planks and grained wood, it creates a harsh, rough sensation, alongside the colour tones.

Le Poison, 1939

Gouache, 14x16”

Magritte often played with the mystery of space and time, and its subjectivity to earthly things. He would play with the fusion of interior and exterior, the alteration of proportion. He would interfere with the system of things (as poison does) and would visit the conceptions of big and small.

The cloud comes sailing into the room, casting a shadow on the wall thus becoming an object. But the cloud also belongs outside. The door goes through a change of colour, from the natural grain of the wood from inside to the blue of the sky. The scene from outside and the room inside, these worlds merge into each other, transcending any spatial contraction and losing their individual character.

Le Château Des Pyrenees, 1959

Oil on canvas, 79x55”

Magritte was fascinated with the properties and preservation of stone in the 1950’s. He was obsessed with the weight and volume of enormous rocks,, but altered the laws of gravity and disregarded the weight of matter. The vision is a play on the French expression “châteaux en Espagne”, equivalent to “castles in the air” and completed the difficult task of making the imaginary look real.