René Magritte
René Magritte was born in 1898 in Lessines, Beligium, and was a pioneer in Psychoanalysis and one of the key figures in the Surrealist movement.
He started his art career as a commercial artist, and by producing book designs to support himself. While some French Surrealists preferred the lavish and ostentatious lifestyles, Magritte preferred the quaint anonymity of a middle class existence, and while a lot of French Surrealists were experimenting with new techniques, Magritte adopted the deadpan, illustrative technique that clearly articulated the content of his pictures.
The illustrative quality of Magrittes pictures often results in a powerful paradox: Images that are beautiful in their clarity and simplicity, but which also provoke unsettling thought. They seem to declare that they hide no mystery and yet they are also very strange.
The men in bowler hats that often appear in Magritte's pictures can be interpreted as self portraits, and he often portrayed his wife, Georgette, as well. These portraits of him and his wife, as well as the images depicting his apartment could suggest autobiographical content, however, it more likely points to the commonplace sources of inspiration- It as if he believed that we need not look far for the mysterious, since it lurks everywhere in the most conventional of lives.
He started his art career as a commercial artist, and by producing book designs to support himself. While some French Surrealists preferred the lavish and ostentatious lifestyles, Magritte preferred the quaint anonymity of a middle class existence, and while a lot of French Surrealists were experimenting with new techniques, Magritte adopted the deadpan, illustrative technique that clearly articulated the content of his pictures.
The illustrative quality of Magrittes pictures often results in a powerful paradox: Images that are beautiful in their clarity and simplicity, but which also provoke unsettling thought. They seem to declare that they hide no mystery and yet they are also very strange.
The men in bowler hats that often appear in Magritte's pictures can be interpreted as self portraits, and he often portrayed his wife, Georgette, as well. These portraits of him and his wife, as well as the images depicting his apartment could suggest autobiographical content, however, it more likely points to the commonplace sources of inspiration- It as if he believed that we need not look far for the mysterious, since it lurks everywhere in the most conventional of lives.
Magritte was fascinated by the interactions of textual and visual signs, and some of his most famous pieces employ both words and imagery. Conceptual artists have admired his use of text in images.
In later years, Magritte was castigated by his peers for some of his strategies, such as his tendency to produce multiple copies of his works.
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| The Son of Man 1946 |
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| The Treachery of Images 1929 |
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| Empire of Light 1953 - 1954 |
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