Rene Magritte and his paintings

Today we introduce you to the greatest artist of the last century, the founder of surrealism - Rene Magritte. The artist was born in 1898, in the small Belgian town Lessin.
Before entering the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, Rene paints in oils, where the influence of the Impressionists can be easily guessed. Later, under the influence of friends Pierre Bourgeois and Pierre Louis Flouquet, he is keen on futurism and cubism. In 1922 he married his girlfriend, whom he had known since 1913 and with whom he did not part until his death.
The Italian metaphysicist Giorgio de Chirico became a huge influence on the artist's work, which change his spectrum and fill with a mystery. The diversity and desire to make money, Rene and his friends founded the magazine "Esophagus", where his first signs of surrealism appear. Later, the Brussels Gallery "Centaur" holds a personal exhibition of the artist, which was a failure. But Rene does not give up and with his wife he moves to Paris for three years, where he draws closer to other surrealists.
It is difficult to talk about the evolution of his work: the found principles of creating a figurative system of works were firmly established and only the manner of writing changed for short periods.
We wanted to pay some attention to his work.
So, in 1935, Rene paints his still life, which calls "Portrait"

A full bottle, an empty glass, a glass that conveys the red color of the wine, a fork and a knife. The artist does not show us the edge of the table, only the visible edge of the table, which is also the line of the horizon. The centerpiece of the picture is bacon with a brown eye that looks at us. Is paranoid thought or inanimate objects, when they were animate, living flesh?
The viewer is given the opportunity to look at their work, not just as a beautiful still life, but always leaves them with an open question. Where everyone is looking for answers for themselves.
In 1958, creates the painting "Auditory Room". The picture shows a large apple, and again Magritte is explained in public that even if it is a fruit that you want to bite off, but it is still only paint on the canvas and is not the fruit of an apple tree. In the composition, the author shows the forbidden fruit, which filled the entire space of the listening room. This is a special symbolism, through which Rene conveys the impression of total reach and submission.

Although Rene himself very often said that his works have nothing to do with symbols, but only things that can be symbolized themselves.
Once Andre Breton was asked: "What is surrealism?" He replied: "This is a cuckoo's egg, which is thrown into another's nest with the knowledge of René Magritte" (source of the best contemporary print edition, page 63)
In 1964, Rene Magritte created one of his most recognizable works - “Son of Man”.

Many critics believe that this is a self-portrait of the artist himself. After all, it is not rare that Rene said that there could be something interesting in the pots - nothing at all. An ordinary mediocre person who leads a measured life. But in fact, the artist himself lived a normal life, there were no extravagant antics, no outrageous. Mediocrity, with all its anonymity, where the apple is the fruit of a paradise forbidden tree in the face of his character worthily embodies the temptation of poetry.
In 1965, Rene creates another of his masterpieces - this picture "Carte blanche."

He always said that visible things may be invisible. For example, if people who love to ride and through the forest, you first see them, then you do not see them there, but you know very well that they are there.
In the picture the rider obscures the trees, and they obscure her. After all, our thinking power is able to unite the visible and the invisible, and with the help of painting Rene could create the visible effect of our thinking.
His painting is amazing, filled with magic. Rene Magritte often said that viewers turn to him and ask what is drawn. He always replied that nothing was drawn, because magic has no form or sign, magic is unknowable.
Magritte drew a lot of pictures, including not only the most famous ones that we listed above, but also such as “Lovers” (1928), the plot of which is very often used by the modern generation in performances, video clips and photo compositions.
In addition, in 1951, Rene painted the ceiling of the Brussels Royal Theater Gallery Saint-Hubert, executed the order of painting the Congress Hall of the Palace of Fine Arts in Charleroi.
Shortly before his death, Rene wrote: “I present the art of painting as a science of combining paints in such a way that their own presence dissolves and a poetic image emerges ...” (source of the book Best Contemporary Artists, 52 page)
In 1967, Rene Magritte died of cancer.
His paintings are an intellectual game, otherwise very cruel, through which the artist tries to astonish the viewer, forcing them to notice oddities in an orderly way of life.