![]() ![]() In Black Magic, the characteristic sky imagery reappears, this time blending in with the woman. Many of his other paintings also place the viewer in a state of uncertainty through their ambiguous nature. Yet the hospitality is undercut by the eery, watchful eye. The high horizon of the painting creates the sense that this table is set for the viewer. Magritte flips the role of the viewer and painting in The Portrait, where a single eye peers out at the viewer from a slice of meat. Both paintings use suspense to pull in the viewer: What is it? What has it been? What will it become? Conversely, in the latter self-portrait, his face is hidden with a single, suspended apple. In The delights of landscape, the painting hasn’t even been created yet it’s not even an blank canvas–it’s empty space. In the former, the artist is literally painting his subject into life, revealing the formation of the woman in real time to the viewer. ![]() His paintings also often reveal or hide things from the viewer, such as in Attempting the Impossible, The delights of landscape, and his arguably most famous painting The Son of Man. Here, the tiny bedroom takes on a kind of matchbox or jewelry box identity, but its sky walls give it a larger-than-life feel. The objects are disproportionately large (the comb is longer than the bed), and the wallpaper of the bedroom looks like a sky. For example, in Personal Values, a comb, matchstick, glass and makeup brush sit in a bedroom with an armoire, bed and rugs. He often placed normal objects into an abnormal context–whether by manipulating their perspective, scope or certain underlying characteristics–thus transforming the objects themselves by removing any of associated preconceptions of them. Magritte’s works often had recurring themes, such as the sky, mirrors, sexual imagery, and paintings within paintings, and he developed a distinctive style which he never strayed far from. A dark and detective/crime-inspired vibe appears in some of his paintings, through his occasional use of weapons and frequent use of dark, solitary silhouettes of men. Magritte was also inspired by a crime fiction series which was very popular before WWI called Fantômas. Magritte used the same realistic technique that Chirico did in his paintings and also placed normal objects in still life-esque, yet completely bizarre, settings. Magritte was influenced by Giorgio de Chirico, an Italian artist who founded the Metaphysical art movement before WWI. Style, Subject Matter, Technique & Their Influences: This often resulted in deeply symbolic works open to interpretation, a direct hit against the styles of Cubism, Realism and Formalism. The Surrealists used dreamlike and mysterious imagery, much of which stemmed through stream of consciousness, in order to create odd juxtapositions within their paintings. The groups regularly communicated with each other, and a few Brussels members (including René Magritte) eventually moved to Paris. There were two informal groups–one based in Brussels, the other Paris–the members of whom met in cafes to discuss Surrealism and experiment with drawing techniques (ex: collaborative drawing, automatic drawing). Visual artists eventually began to associate with the movement, often incorporating many of the writers’ techniques, such as “automatism”–or the technique of writing freely from the subconscious–into their own practices. ![]() Led by French poet André Breton, Surrealism emerged in 1924 originally as a literary movement in Paris inspired by the psychological and political theories of Sigmund Freud and Karl Marx, respectively. Magritte’s popularity greatly rose in the 1960s, and he died of pancreatic cancer on August 5, 1967, at the age of 68. He would move back and forth between Brussels and Paris throughout his life, and had a rocky relationship with André Breton, the founder of the Surrealist movement. In 1927, Magritte moved to Paris, where he more closely interacted with the Surrealist group over there. ![]() Magritte was extremely prolific in the late 1920s, producing almost one piece of artwork everyday. Aside from this, not much is known about his early life. Two years after he began drawing at age 12, his mother committed suicide in the River Sambre. His father was a tailor and textile merchant, and his mother was a milliner. Magritte was born Novemin Hainaut, Lessines (a province in Belgium). ![]()
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