Magritte's human destiny is the meaning of the painting. Why was Rene Magritte obsessed with hats?

"Everything we see hides something else,
we always want to see what is hidden behind what
what we see, but it is impossible.
People keep their secrets very carefully..."
(R. Magritte)

115 years ago, René François Ghislain Magritte was born, a Belgian surrealist artist known as the author of witty and at the same time poetically mysterious paintings...

In life

In a self-portrait

The phrase “unusual surrealist” sounds almost like “butter.” Oscar Wilde's behest - to make one's life an art - is strictly observed by the surrealists, turning their biographies into an endless performance with the obligatory scandalous statements, shocking antics and emotional striptease.

Against the backdrop of this endless carnival, personal life Belgian artist Rene François Ghislain Magritte looks boring, even more so - oh horror! - bourgeois. Judge for yourself. Magritte did not smear himself with goat poop, did not organize sexual orgies, did not pretend to be an ideologist of the movement, did not write treatises on farting and masturbation, did not dance naked in the moonlight... He lived his entire life with only one woman, he preferred to work at home, in the living room, where the carpet has never even been stained with paint! And he also had an image - a suit, a bowler - well, just like the favorite heroes of his paintings - one-faced, respectable gentlemen.
Yes! He also didn’t like psychoanalysis - which for the surrealists of that time was a real “sacrilege”...

Magritte was born on November 21, 1898 in the small town of Lessines, Belgium. He spent his childhood and youth in the small industrial city of Charleroi. Life was hard.
In 1912, his mother drowned herself in the Sambre River, which apparently had a big influence on the future artist, who was then still a teenager, however, contrary to popular belief, one should not overestimate the influence of this event on the author’s work. Magritte brought back from his childhood a number of other, not so tragic, but no less mysterious memories, which he himself said were reflected in his work.

In 1916, Rene entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. After studying here for two years, he not only develops his talent and acquires a profession, but also makes acquaintance with young Georgette Berger. Later, in 1922, she would become Magritte's wife and muse for the rest of her life.

Georgette Berger became Magritte's only model.

Painting "Achieving the Impossible"

Photoimitation of a painting

During this time, he develops a deep dislike for arts and crafts. Later he will say: “I hate my past and anyone else’s. I hate humility, patience, professional heroism and the obligatory sense of beauty. I also hate arts and crafts, folklore, advertising, voices that make announcements, aerodynamics, Boy Scouts, the smell of mothballs, moment-to-moment events, and drunk people.”

After graduating from the academy, Magritte took eight years to make his way from poster designer to surrealist artist. At first, Rene was engaged in wallpaper and worked as an advertising artist. At the same time, he wrote his first works in the genre of cubism, but after a couple of years he was captured by the modernist movement of the Dadaists.

In 1926, the artist completed the first, in his opinion, worthwhile painting, “The Lost Jockey.”

"The Lost Jockey" (1948)
A simplified version of the 1926 painting. The surreal effect was achieved here by much more economical means - the trees resemble either leaves, from which only veins remain, or the circuits of the nervous system.

In 1927 he organized his first exhibition. Critics recognize it as unsuccessful, and Magritte and Georgette leave for Paris, where they meet Andre Breton and join his surrealist circle. In this circle, Magritte did not lose his individuality, but joining it helped Magritte find that signature, unique style by which his paintings are recognized. The artist was not afraid to argue with other surrealists: for example, Magritte had a negative attitude towards psychoanalysis and especially its manifestations in art. Indeed, the nature of his work is not so much psychological as philosophical and poetic, sometimes based on paradoxes of logic.

R. Magritte
“Art, as I understand it, is not subject to psychoanalysis. It is always a mystery. ... They decided that my “Red Model” is an example of a castration complex. After listening to several explanations this kind, I made a drawing according to all the “rules” of psychoanalysis. Naturally, they analyzed it just as calmly. It’s terrible to see what kind of mockery a person who has made one innocent drawing can be subjected to... Perhaps psychoanalysis itself is best theme for a psychoanalyst."

However, these statements did not at all dampen the ardor of the psychoanalysts themselves. They finally dug up the only relevant fact in the artist’s boring biography - the strange suicide of his mother, who, for no apparent reason, drowned herself in the river. Magritte was only fourteen at that time - what a childhood psychological trauma! This is why the faces in his paintings are often covered or obscured! After all, when the body of the drowned woman was found, his face was entangled in a nightgown. Magritte's attempts to refute these speculations, of course, led nowhere...

Difficult relationships with his colleagues more than once forced Magritte to distance himself from the term “surrealism.” “It’s better to call me a “magical realist,” the artist has repeatedly stated.

"Black magic"

Indeed, in Magritte’s drawing style there is practically no fluid plasticity of forms, characteristic of many surrealists. His images have clear boundaries, meticulously drawn details, cold staticity and therefore an almost tangible “objectivity”. Often the elements of a painting are extremely simple and realistic. And from these “elementary particles” Magritte creates truly magical structures.

The most main idea all the paintings of Rene Magritte is that only the proximity of incompatible things allows you to clearly understand the essence and nature of each of them. The play of contrasts fills absolutely all of Magritte’s works with unique magic.

In each of his works, the artist depicted absolutely ordinary and familiar objects to humans: an apple, a rose, a castle, a window, a rock, a statue, a rainbow, a person.

The list can be continued endlessly, but believe me, not a single surprising fictional character you won't meet. All the mystery and magic is in the inexplicable and disproportionate combination of images. Many paintings show the contrast of the heaviness of the stone and the weightlessness of the sky. The gigantic sizes of juicy fruits and fresh flowers fit into the tight confines of a gray room or concrete wall. In the paintings of Rene Magritte, a floating head and a broken window represent the unified idea of ​​the art of freedom.

Magritte lived his entire life with the feeling that the world kept some secret, hidden from the ordinary. human eye. It is not for nothing that the artist called one of his paintings, which depicts an eye with clouds floating across the cornea, “False Mirror.”

But this idea is most clearly expressed in one of Magritte’s most famous and programmatic works - “The Treachery of Images” - where an ordinary pipe is accompanied by the ironic signature “This is not a pipe.” This seemingly simple picture became an excellent illustration of philosophical reflections about the difference between an object, an image and words. This is what conceptuality means.

R. Magritte:
“Really, is it possible to fill this pipe with tobacco? No, this is not a pipe, and I would be lying if I said otherwise.
...The word does not express the essence of the phenomenon. There is no connection between the image and its verbal expression. In general, words do not carry any information about the object they describe. The trees we see see us in the same way. They live with us. These are witnesses of what is happening in our lives. They hide many secrets. Then a coffin is made from the tree, the tree returns to the ground. Keeping our ashes and becoming ashes. To call the image of a tree “tree” is a mistake, a case of incorrect definition. An image is independent of the object it represents. What excites us in a painted tree has nothing to do with a real tree. And vice versa. What we enjoy in real life, leaves us cold in the depiction of this beautiful reality. One should not confuse the real with the surreal and the surreal with the subconscious."

M. Foucault “This is not a pipe”:
"There is no contradiction in Magritte's statement: the drawing representing a pipe is not itself a pipe. And, nevertheless, there is a habit of speech: what is in this picture? - this is a calf, this is a square, this is a flower. The caligram is a tautology, it traps things in a double inscriptions. The caligram never speaks and does not represent at the same time; the same thing, trying to be simultaneously visible and readable, dies to the eye, turns out to be impenetrable to reading. Magritte builds the caligram and then dismantles it. He brings confusion to all traditional relationships between language and image. Negations multiply: This is not a pipe, but a drawing of a pipe; this is not a pipe, but a phrase saying that this is not a pipe. Kandinsky eliminates the ancient identity between similarity and affirmation with one sovereign gesture, ridding painting of both. Magritte operates through disunion: to break the connection between them, to establish their inequality, to force each of them to play its own game, to support what reveals the nature of painting, to the detriment of what is closer to discourse."

After the termination of the contract with the Sainteau gallery, Magritte returned to Brussels and again worked with advertising, and then, together with his brother, opened an agency that gave them fixed income. During the German occupation of Belgium during World War II, Magritte succeeds color scheme and the style of his paintings, approaching the style of Renoir: the artist considered it important to cheer people up and instill hope in them.

However, after the war, Magritte stopped painting in such a “sunny” style and returned to the images of his pre-war paintings. By processing and improving them, he finally forms his strange style and achieves wide recognition.

"Song of Love"

Magritte died of pancreatic cancer on August 15, 1967, leaving unfinished new option his perhaps most famous painting, Empire of Light.

"Empire of Light"

Sources

Alogism, absurdity, combination of the incongruous, paradoxical visual variability of images and figures - this is the basis of the foundations of surrealism. The founder of this movement is considered to be the embodiment of the theory of the subconscious of Sigmund Freud at the basis of surrealism. It was on this basis that many representatives of the movement created masterpieces that did not reflect objective reality, but were merely the embodiment of individual images inspired by the subconscious. The canvases painted by the surrealists could not be the product of either good or evil. They all evoked different emotions in different people. Therefore, we can say with confidence that this direction of modernism is quite controversial, which contributed to its rapid spread in painting and literature.

Surrealism as an illusion and literature of the 20th century

Salvador Dali, Paul Delvaux, Rene Magritte, Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Giorgio de Chirico, Yves Tanguy, Michael Parkes and Dorothy Tanning are the pillars of surrealism that emerged in France in the 20s of the last century. This trend is not limited to France, but has spread to other countries and continents. Surrealism greatly facilitated the perception of cubism and abstractionism.

One of the main postulates of the surrealists was the identification of the energy of creators with the human subconscious, which manifests itself in sleep, under hypnosis, in delirium during illness, or in random creative insights.

Distinctive characteristics of surrealism

Surrealism is a complex movement in painting, which many artists understood and understand in their own way. Therefore, it is not surprising that surrealism developed in two conceptual ways. different directions. The first branch can easily be attributed to Miro, Max Ernst, Jean Arp and Andre Masson, in whose works the main place was occupied by images that smoothly turn into abstraction. The second branch takes as a basis the embodiment of a surreal image generated by the human subconscious, with illusory accuracy. Salvador Dali, who is an ideal representative of academic painting, worked in this direction. It is his works that are characterized by an accurate rendering of chiaroscuro and a careful manner of painting - dense objects have tangible transparency, while solid objects spread, are massive and volumetric figures acquire lightness and weightlessness, and incompatible ones can be combined together.

Biography of Rene Magritte

Along with the works of Salvador Dali is the work of Rene Magritte, a famous Belgian artist who was born in the city of Lesin in 1898. In the family, except for Rene. there were two more children, and in 1912 a misfortune happened that influenced the life and work of the future artist - his mother died. This was reflected in Rene Magritte’s painting “In Memory of Mack Sennett,” which was painted in 1936. The artist himself claimed that circumstances had no influence on his life and work.

In 1916, Rene Magritte entered the Brussels Academy of Arts, where he met his future muse and wife Georgette Berger. After graduating from the Academy, Rene worked on creating advertising materials, and was quite dismissive of this. Futurism, Cubism and Dada had a huge influence on the artist, but in 1923 Rene Magritte first saw Giorgio de Chirico's work "Song of Love". It was this moment that became Starting point for the development of the surrealist René Magritte. At the same time, the formation of a movement began in Brussels, of which Rene Magritte became a representative along with Marcel Lecampt, Andre Suri, Paul Nouger and Camille Gemans.

The works of Rene Magritte.

The works of this artist have always been controversial and attracted a lot of attention.

Many artists pay Special attention names. Especially Rene Magritte. Paintings with the titles “This is not a pipe” or “Son of Man” awaken the thinker and philosopher in the viewer. In his opinion, not only the picture should encourage the viewer to show emotions, but also the title should surprise and make you think.
As for descriptions, many surrealists gave brief summary to your canvases. Rene Magritte is no exception. Paintings with descriptions have always been present in the artist’s advertising activities.

The artist himself called himself a “magical realist.” His goal was to create a paradox, and the audience should draw their own conclusions. Rene Magritte in his works always clearly drew a line between the subjective image and real reality.

Painting "Lovers"

Rene Magritte painted a series of paintings called “Lovers” in 1927-1928 in Paris.

The first picture shows a man and a woman who are united in a kiss. Their heads are wrapped in white cloth. The second painting depicts the same man and woman in white cloth, looking out from the painting at the audience.

The white fabric in the artist’s work causes and has caused heated discussions. There are two versions. According to the first, white fabric in the works of Rene Magritte appeared in connection with the death of his mother in early childhood. His mother jumped off a bridge into the river. When her body was removed from the water, a white cloth was found wrapped around her head. As for the second version, many knew that the artist was a fan of Fantômas, the hero of the popular movie. Therefore, it may be that the white fabric is a tribute to the passion for cinema.

What is this picture about? Many people think that the painting “Lovers” personifies blind love: when people fall in love, they stop noticing someone or something other than their soul mate. But people remain mysteries to themselves. On the other hand, looking at the kiss of lovers, we can say that they have lost their heads with love and passion. Rene Magritte's painting is filled with mutual feelings and experiences.

"Son of Man"

Rene Magritte's painting "The Son of Man" became business card“magical realism” and a self-portrait of Rene Magritte. This particular work is considered one of the most controversial works of the master.

Rene Magritte played important role in the development of surrealism, and his works continue to excite the consciousness of more and more generations.

René Magritte is a Belgian surrealist artist. Known as the author of witty and at the same time poetically mysterious paintings.

Biography of Rene Magritte

Magritte was born on November 21, 1898 in the small Belgian town of Lessines. He spent his childhood and youth in the small industrial city of Charleroi. Life was hard.

In 1912, his mother drowned herself in the Sambre River, which apparently had a great influence on the future artist, who was then still a teenager; however, contrary to popular belief, the influence of this event on the author’s work should not be overestimated. Magritte brought back from his childhood a number of other, not so tragic, but no less mysterious memories, about which he himself said that they were reflected in his work (lecture of 1938).

Magritte studied at the Royal Academy for two years Fine Arts in Brussels, which he left in 1918. During this time he met Georgette Berger, whom he married in 1922 and with whom he lived until his death in 1967.

In 1926, Magritte created the surreal painting “The Lost Jockey,” which he considered his first good picture of such kind. In 1927 he organized his first exhibition. Critics recognize it as unsuccessful, and Magritte and Georgette leave for Paris, where they meet Andre Breton and join his surrealist circle. In this circle, Magritte did not lose his individuality, but joining it helped Magritte find that signature, unique style by which his paintings are recognized. The artist was not afraid to argue with other surrealists: for example, Magritte had a negative attitude towards psychoanalysis and especially its manifestations in art. Indeed, the nature of his work is not so much psychological as philosophical and poetic, sometimes based on paradoxes of logic.

From 1932 to 1945, the artist joined the Belgian Communist Party three times and also left its ranks three times.

After terminating the contract with the Sainteau gallery, Magritte returned to Brussels and again worked with advertising, and then, together with his brother, opened an agency that gave them a permanent income. During the German occupation of Belgium during the Second World War, Magritte changed the colors and style of his paintings, approaching the style of Renoir: the artist considered it important to cheer people up and instill hope in them.

However, after the war, Magritte stopped painting in such a “sunny” style and returned to the images of his pre-war paintings. By processing and improving them, he finally forms his strange style and achieves wide recognition.

Magritte died of pancreatic cancer on August 15, 1967, leaving a new version of his perhaps most famous painting, Empire of Light, unfinished. He was buried in Schaerbeek Cemetery.

Artist's creativity

“Surrealism is reality freed from banal meaning,” Magritte once said.

The artist's paintings create a feeling of mysterious tension and fear; this feeling is achieved by depicting a situation that has nothing in common with the normal one familiar to a person. The secret of Magritte's works lies in the contrast between beautifully painted "hyperreal" objects and their strange combinations and unnatural surroundings.

"Surrealism of Magritte» - intellectual game, which reveals problematic properties visual perception and an illusory image on a plane. The artist called his paintings theorems, believing that the shifts and transformations of reality occurring in them have an internal logic similar to the logic of mathematical transformations. Already a series of works from the late 1920s - early 1930s, where an elementary picture is accompanied by an inscription that contradicts it, demonstrates the symbolic nature of the visual image (“The Empty Mask”, 1928, Düsseldorf, Art Collection of North Rhine-Westphalia; “Betrayal of Images” ", 1928-1929, Los Angeles, Museum of Art; "The Key to Dreams", 1930, Paris, private collection). In a number of paintings, surrealist absurdity arises as a consequence of the literal translation of verbal metaphors into a visible image (“Lovers”, 1926, Brussels, private collection; “The Art of Conversation”, 1950, private collection).

The artist’s special interest in psychological and epistemological problems was manifested in the play of reflections inherent in his painting, in the comparison of obvious and hidden images, in the symbolism of the mirror, eye, window, stage and curtain, painting within a painting (“Human Lot”, 1933, Washington, National Gallery; “Unacceptable reproduction”, 1937, Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen; "Euclid's Walk", 1955, Minneapolis, Art Institute). In the 1940s, Magritte made two attempts to change his style. However, the so-called “captivity of salts style” (or “Renoir style”, 1945-1947) and the subsequent “vulgar style” (1947-1948) did not lead to fruitful results, and the artist returned to his previous method. In sculpture, Magritte duplicated the images of his painting, continuing to develop the theme of the relationship between physical and mental realities.

Magritte, sometimes arranging optical puzzles, laughs at the audience and makes fun of the naive faith of realists in what they reliably reflect the world. According to Magritte, no amount of virtuosity of the brush and precision of observation can “catch” a real physical object on the canvas. A painting is a fictional space, which, however, does not deny the fact that the essence of objects and phenomena can be expressed in it much more fully and deeply than with the most high-quality and conscientious copying of reality. Therefore, in the famous self-portrait “Divination”, Magritte programmatically captures his method, which consists in visualizing the invisible, treating painting as witchcraft. There is an egg on the table in front of the artist, and a bird on the canvas on the easel.

He was able to reveal the irrational and mysterious that surrounds us simply and powerfully, fundamentally remaining in line with figurative painting. He forced us to abandon dogma and primitivism in the perception of life, discovering new meanings in seemingly elementary truths.

Magritte despised artists who became prisoners of their talent and virtuosity, hated abilities if they came down to technical methods and focused on materials. His constant concern was thought in pictures, without any preconceived thoughts, without any concepts - thought exclusively in the visual sphere, which is nevertheless stimulated by the intellect and metaphysics:

“...and with the help of painting I make thoughts visible.”

Acquaintance with the metaphysical painting of George de Chirico and Dadaistic poetry was an important turning point for Magritte's work. In 1925, Magritte joined the Dada group, collaborating in the magazines “Aesophage” and “Marie” together with Jean Arp, Picabia, Tzara and other Dadaists. In 1925–1926 Magritte wrote "Oasis" and "The Lost Jockey" - his first surreal paintings. In 1927–1930, Magritte lived in France, participated in the activities of a group of surrealists, and became close friends with Max Ernst, Dali, Andre Breton, Louis Buñuel and especially Paul Eluard.

It is enough just to look closely at his work to feel that the neat and balanced Belgian bourgeois, alien to eccentricity and scandal, was indeed one of the magical artists of this century.

Magritte's strength and power lies in his ability to support not meaning, but the need for meaning in a world that has ceased to recognize this need. His work is a mystery that is unlikely to be fully solved.

• Magritte hated humility, patience, the past (equally his own and others), folklore, advertising and advertising voices, boy scouts, drunk people. And arts and crafts. The latter is clear: Magritte spent eight years painting wallpaper, posters, decorations for advertising and other decorative and creative works before he was recognized as an artist.
• He lived an amazing life boring life. Maybe even more boring than Kafka. He didn’t smear his pants with goat excrement, didn’t make a fuss, didn’t go crazy. He loved one woman, painted pictures in the dining room, dressed sparsely. The only bright event in his entire life was tragic death mother. The future artist's mother drowned herself in a river when he was 14 years old. About this family tragedy Magritte preferred not to tell, and even the artist’s wife, who lived with him for almost fifty years, learned about her mother’s suicide only from Magritte’s biographer. However, experts believe that the echo terrible death pursued by Rene. When the drowned woman's body was found, her face was wrapped in a nightgown. Maybe that's why Magritte so often paints women whose faces are covered with a veil?
• Despite his close ties to surrealism, Magritte did not like to be called a surrealist. For his work he came up with the name “ magical realism", because his works are not so much addressed to the subconscious as they encourage active reflection and the search for answers to eternal questions.
• He built the plot of his paintings on a play of contrasts. The most important idea of ​​​​all the paintings of Rene Magritte is that only the proximity of incompatible things allows you to clearly understand the essence and nature of each of them

In 1978, Adrian Maben made a film about the great Rene Magritte. Then the whole world learned about the artist, but his paintings were worthy of becoming immortal from the very beginning. Magritte painted in the style of surrealism, and he was boldly put on the same level as Salvador Dali. Magritte was very witty in his works. See for yourself: they deserve admiration.

Son of Man, 1964

Scheherazade, 1948

The funniest thing about the artist’s style was that he did not draw incomprehensible images, but used quite primitive things as components of the picture. It seems that all the objects are recognizable, but the end result is some kind of unimaginable surprise (surprise!).

Perpetual motion, 1935

Moreover, Magritte himself said that he “sews” a thought into each picture, and the images are not a stupid accumulation of elements, but an independent story.

The Pleasure Principle, 1937

Companions of Fear, 1942

Researchers say that if you evaluate all of an artist's paintings, you can create a fairly clear idea of ​​his inner world.

This is not an apple, 1964

Big family, 1967

The Great War, 1964

Tranquil Sleeper, 1927

The artist was born on November 21, 1898 in the city of Loessin. When he turned 14, Rene's mother drowned herself in the Sambre River, which was a huge shock for the child. For some reason, it is generally accepted that this fact did not influence Magritte’s work, but there is certainly a connection.

Lovers, 1928

Lovers II, 1928

Golconda, 1953

Two Mysteries, 1966

Apparently, as compensation for his difficult childhood, at the age of 15 the boy falls in love with Georgette Berger, and she becomes his only woman for life. He dedicates all his paintings to her, she is his only model, he remains faithful to her. Worthy of respect love story! When he turns 22, they get married; by that time, Magritte had long since graduated from the art academy.

Georgette Magritte, 1934

Magritte with Georgette

On a wave of love, the future talent admires the works of other masters (cubism was in fashion at that time), and begins to earn extra money as a painter and poster artist.

Therapist, 1937

Philosophical lamp, 1936

Magritte's first exhibition took place in 1927. Then he read a lot, moved among philosophers and respected writers, studied psychoanalysis, so all his paintings were full of deep content and meaning. But he did not like psychoanalysis and did not consider himself a surrealist, since critics of his paintings tried to “dissect” his character based on his works. We got to the Oedipus complex, remembered our dead mother, and then Magritte got angry.

“It’s terrible to see what kind of mockery a person can be subjected to after making one innocent drawing... Perhaps psychoanalysis itself is the best topic for a psychoanalyst.”

Rape, 1934

Meditation, 1936

In the 1950s it came to him global recognition, paintings were exhibited in Rome, London, New York, in general, in best galleries planets. His art was often called “daydreams.”

Listening Room, 1952

Red model, 1935

Distorting Mirror, 1928

Collective invention, 1942

The artist specified:

“My paintings are not dreams that put you to sleep, but dreams that awaken you.”

Of course, his paintings are drawn in different styles and techniques: art deco, post-impressionism, cubism, surrealism, all kinds of materials were used in his works (from gouache to appliqué), but he gained fame precisely because of the surrealism in his works, which is atypical for anyone.

Midnight Married, 1926

In 1967, Rene died of pancreatic cancer. Almost 50 years have passed, but his work still excites and appeals to people. This means that the artist can safely be considered a classic.

Unfinished painting, 1954

Here I have posted paintings by Rene Magritte with titles. Also a few facts about the character and philosophy of this man. For those who want to know closer biography I recommend watching the film “Monsignor Magritte” by this artist.

I put off this post for a long time, not because I don’t like Rene Magritte, but rather the opposite because of the significance of this phenomenon. Actually, in my understanding, the pillars of surrealism in painting are two people: Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte. They're like Tolkien and Lewis in fantasy. Magritte and Dali influenced and continue to influence all surrealists.

However, these were two completely different people, differing as much as their pictures differ. Rene Magritte, in contrast to Dali and all the other surrealists, did not like to shock the public, did not start fights, did not use fly agarics for inspiration, and spent his entire life with one woman - his wife Georgette, his main muse, kindred spirit and a model.

Philosophy of Rene Magritte

What is curious is that the man who, along with Dali, is considered a classic of surrealism did not even recognize the philosophy of this movement, in which psychoanalysis occupied one of the main places. The Belgian believed that creativity cannot be analyzed, that it is a mystery, a philosophical puzzle, but not the subject of Freudian analysis.

Considering this philosophy, it is not surprising that many of his works often cause bewilderment and the feeling that the artist is making fun of you. Obviously, such ambiguity and symbolism contributed to the fact that many parodies and installations were created on his paintings. The painting “Son of Man” is especially popular in this regard.

Quite a decent burgher :) They didn’t give you that with your spacesuit :)

In general, Magritte was a quiet, calm person, and the most interesting things happened in his head. Perhaps that is why so few films have been made about Rene Magritte, unlike Dali.

I will not dryly list the facts from his biography here; 100,500 other people have already done this for me. I think that’s not why people come to the blog, after all, that’s what pediwiki is for. If you want to get to know the biography of this artist, I advise you to watch the film Monsieur Rene Magritte (Monsieur Rene Magritte) 1978. It is more interesting than reading a dry Wikipedia text (with all due respect to pedivics).

Paintings by René Magritte with titles

Everything this man wanted to tell us, he said with his paintings. The paintings of Rene Magritte, in contrast to the stormy pressure of Dali's whimsical visions, are calmer and more philosophical. In addition, Magritte’s paintings are imbued with a very peculiar sense of humor. Just look at his painting of a pipe with a signature below - it’s not a pipe.