René Magritte is one of the brightest representatives of surrealism. He was a researcher, an art thinker and an image philosopher. His paintings are puzzles that explore the relationship between objects.
Rene Magritte was born in a small town of Lessines in the western part of Belgium, in 1898, and died in 1967 in Brussels. Whilst staying in Paris, he became very close with the Surrealist circle around the poet Andre Breton and acquainted with the art of Dali, Miro, and de Chirico. Rene Magritte was influenced by the items and symbols of the advertising world that was on the rise, and built his own mode among the Surrealism art movement.
René Magritte's paintings are like an advertising poster, the images he created are forever part of the mass culture. He is loved and quoted by everyone, from fashion designers to Hollywood filmmakers, from musicians to bankers. Magritte's portrait was placed on a 500 Belgian franc banknote. Many designers and brands have been inspired by his works: Raf Simons' debut collection for Dior is based on "The Marches of summer" and "The Wonders of Nature", Comme des Garçons has released a collection of shoes inspired by Magritte's works, and Jeremy Scott from Moschino has made a collection with a direct reference to René's painting "The Treachery of Images" and called it This is not a Moschino.
The Lovers (1928)
"Don't look for the right answer - there isn't one," that's how René Magritte used to talk about his artworks. His painting "Lovers" is considered one of the most mysterious and controversial. It is too deep for the phrase "love is blind" or the aphorism "to lose one's head in love" for Magritte to devote his time to it. The characters in the painting are also unfamiliar with the cheating and betrayal that can be assumed from the composition of the work.
Frustrated desires are a common theme in René Magritte’s work. Here, a barrier of fabric prevents the intimate embrace between two lovers, transforming an act of passion into one of isolation and frustration, There are two people in the centre of the painting. A man and a woman have white sheets over their heads so that they can't see each other's faces. And yet their lips come into contact with each other in a kiss. When a man falls in love, his world begins to acquire completely different colours. This moment of rebirth is depicted on the canvas. The moment when people cannot yet see where this love will lead them, and where they can move on. What awaits them after?
The Son of Man (1964)
Collector Harry Torchiner once ordered a self-portrait of René Magritte, but it was challenging for the artist to paint himself as he is. So René covered his face with a green apple. In this way, it was not himself that Magritte drew the portrait, but a certain anonymous person in a bowler hat and gave him the name "The Son of Man".
The central figure in the painting is a man in an official long jacket, which creates the appearance of a disproportionately stretched body, wearing a white shirt with a red tie and a black cauldron. Subsequently, this very element of the toilet has been traced more than once in the paintings of the artist. The background of the painting is the sky with swirling clouds, smoothly flowing into the same blue sea. From this painting behind the back of the "anonymous" soul, full harmony and tranquillity blooms.
Despite its presentable appearance, the viewer will never be able to know for sure what kind of person, what secrets "The Son of Man" hides, and will never be able to know its essence because of one small detail - an apple.
There are several versions of what exactly symbolises the bright green spot in the painting. One version complements the other. And yet, based on the name, the Paradise fruit - the apple - has triggered an irreversible process of birth of human life on Earth. Based on Christian considerations, we can assume that the painting depicts a surrealistic image of Jesus Christ.
The Treachery of Images (1929)
The Treachery of Images (French: La Trahison des images) is a 1929 painting by surrealist painter René Magritte. It is also known as “This is Not a Pipe” and The “Wind and the Song”. Magritte painted it when he was 30 years old. It is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Magritte was rebuked for his painting "The Fraud of Images", even his surrealist colleagues did not understand him. The picture was painted when the artist lived and worked in Paris. Because of unconventional thoughts and ideas, other artists did not particularly warmly accept René's philosophical ideas and images.
The canvas depicts a smoking pipe. Every stroke, every line, is perfect. The glare of light seems to reflect the entire space around, in the middle of which is a small thing that seems gigantic on the canvas of a skilful artist. At the bottom of the painting you can see a phrase written in beautiful calligraphic font in French: "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", which means "it is not a pipe".
Magritte would later comment on his work as follows: "...if I had written "it's a pipe", I would have lied! We present the pipe the way our memory has remembered it, the way we have seen it. But the pipe can look different, not the way we remember it, because our memory has the ability to draw some details. Will it still be a pipe in that case? It will be. After all, it's "just an idea of it".
The Human Condition (1933)
The combination of visible and hidden always creates dissonance in the head of the viewer. The painting "The Human Condition " evokes mixed feelings that contradict each other. René Magritte has created many interpretations of this composition, of which the most popular was this work.
The painting shows a plot in which a certain "incognito" drew a landscape while standing on the other side of the window. The painting stands on an easel, overlapping the view of a fragrant green garden or the calm blue sea and yellow soft sand (these are the most common subjects).
"The 'The Human Condition' depicts subjective reality, i.e. not the reality that is, but what we imagine; how our imagination is capable of drawing it from the perspective of what our eyes see. We decide for ourselves what seems to be what is hidden from us and this shapes our perception of the world.
Golconda (1953)
Golkonda used to be called a fortress in the centre of India, where diamonds were mainly traded. For a long time there were only ruins left of it, and now Golkonda is just the name of one of Rene Magritte's paintings.
It is reasonable to note that many surrealists have not linked the plot of their paintings to their names. However, if a little time and attention to detail is given, it is quite possible to at least try to unravel another rebus of the Belgian artist.
The piece depicts a scene of "raining men", nearly identical to each other dressed in dark overcoats and bowler hats, who seem to be either falling down like rain drops, floating up like helium balloons, or just stationed in mid-air as no movement or motion is implied. The backdrop features red-roofed buildings and a mostly blue partly cloudy sky, lending credence to the theory that the men are not raining. The men are equally spaced in a lattice, facing the viewpoint and receding back in rhombic grid layers.
One interpretation is that Magritte is demonstrating the line between individuality and group association, and how it is blurred. All of these men are dressed the same, have the same bodily features and are all floating/falling. This leaves us to look at the men as a group. Whereas if we look at each person, we can predict that they may be completely different from another figure.
Text by Lisa Lukianova @llukianova_