René Magritte
Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting
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Not to Be Reproduced (Portrait of Edward James, 1937). René Magritte
Oil on canvas. 81.3 cm x 65 cm
Magritte’s images rebel against the preconceived idea we have of them.
They provoke us. They move us. They make us reflect, as we take everything for granted. Things can be fascinating if we learn to observe and if we expand the limits of our perception.
Images deceive us, and we are accomplices in this deception. The Belgian artist proposes that we should recover our capacity for astonishment. We should doubt reality in order to rediscover it.
We should use new eyes.
Is he a surrealist? Magritte is considered part of the movement; he knew Breton and many of the other members (Edward James, the man portrayed in this painting, was a surrealist writer).
He paints absurd and paradoxical images, which could make us believe that they are dreams. But in reality, he uses neither psychic automatism (the total liberation of the unconscious, the method par excellence of the Surrealists) nor is he so impulsive or instinctive, nor does he reproduce dreams.
Magritte is an artist conscious of what he does at all times. A great provocateur who transmits his ideas with irony.
An apple occupies an entire room, nocturnal landscapes are illuminated by clear skies, huge rocks float in the air, and a mirror reflects upside down. The image of a pipe that says “This is not a pipe” and is called The Betrayal of Images.
Strange realities, full of paradoxes and contrasts. They are, however, very simple. His paintings, in general, lack complexity; they are just a provocation to shake our habituation to things, and that’s all.
When a critic went too far in analyzing one of his works, Magritte told him, “But how lucky you are, you see so many things in it.”
Recommended links:
“There are no answers in my paintings. Just questions”
Artistic Movements, Periods and Styles in 5 Points: Surrealism.
The Persistence of Memory (1931), Salvador Dalí.
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