René Margritte

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René Magritte

René François Ghislain Magritte was born in 21 November 1898. He was a Belgian surrealist artist and became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images that fall under the umbrella of surrealism. His work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality. He died in 15 August 1967. Here are some of his artworks.

False Mirror

One of the most famous paintings by Rene Magritte. Here, the artists insinuates how human vision is limited, where mirror signifies a physical reflection, while the eye is the symbol of selective and subjective personal view. It is layered with meaning, as an eye can be looked by, looked through and looked in.

The Big Family

The title implies a mystery, since there is no family depicted. The explanation lies in the fact that Magritte took pleasure in confusing the public. The flying bird may be a symbol of love and harmony, evoking emotions that reflect his notion of a family.

Call of Peaks

One of the typical indoor landscapes of Rene Magritte, belonging to a series of paintings with easel depicted. He enjoys playing with illusion and dual meaning of images, where the easel is the symbol or the carrier of this duality.

The Glass Key

The title for this painting is borrowed from Hammett’s novel, La clef de verre. Inspired by the work of fiction, Magritte conjured a poetic dialogue of the state and the dynamism of words and images, presented by the depicted rock, title and the perplexity of their connection.

Golcanda

Men falling from the sky are the same bowler hat man who appears in The Son of Man. This painting represents Magritte’s exploration of individuality set against the collective, and how it is easily lost. All the men wear the same clothes, appear the same and are falling in equal manner. But are they really all identical or not? This is the core issue which makes us think over this great piece.

Hegel's Holiday

This imaginative exploration of the nature of an object inspired Rene Magritte to name the painting Hegel’s Holiday, as the artist himself wrote in May 1958 He would have been charmed, I think, or amused (as if on holiday).

Personal Values

Another iconic work by Magritte. A room, packed with familiar items, all blown out of proportion, defying all common sense. The act of oversizing provides new meaning to the small, known things, making the take over the everyday and become larger than life. There are many threads of meaning in this painting, relating to every viewer Magritte’s contemporary or us, today.

Le Beau Monde

Blurring the boundaries between the interior and the exterior, this painting contains all the most known traits of Magritte’s personal iconography – the curtain, the apple and the blue sky with clouds. The beautiful world is an oneiric place, filled with symbols of things we aspire to.

The Lovers

Frustration over desires appears frequently as the subject of Rene Magritte’s painting. A drapery prevents an intimate encounter between two people, transforming a love scene into a scene of dissatisfaction. The artists raises the question of how much do we really know other people, even the ones closest to us.

Iconography derives from his childhood trauma of witnessing his dead mother being dragged out of a river, with a veiled face.

Son of a Man

The iconic man of Rene Magritte. Who is he? Is it a self-portrait? Maybe, and maybe it is every working, average man. His face is covered with an apple, blocking his vision, which the artist explains with words: “It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”

The Treachery of Images

Probably the most famous painting of Rene Magritte and definitely the most revolutionary. About this emblematic image, the artist said” “The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it’s just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture “This is a pipe”, I’d have been lying!”