Magritte, Rene

Some artists, such as Henri Matisse, chose to use bold colors not natural to the subject, distortion, simplification, and visual texture to describe their ideas. Because of the shocking effect of the works of Matisse and the works of other expressive artists of the early twentieth century, the artists were given the name fauves, meaning wild beasts. Others, such as Pablo Picasso, chose to break down their subjects into simple geometric forms, calling their form of abstraction cubism. Still others, such as Salvador Dali and Rene Magritte, chose to draw upon dreams and fantasy to express their views in a style called surrealism. 

Surrealism 1920 to the Present. Artists who have been involved in the surrealist movement include Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Rene Magritte, and Max Ernst. Surrealism combines realism, the subconscious, and the dream world. Imaginative objects, the real and unreal, exist in the same picture. This movement was inspired by Sigmund Freud s study of the subconscious. The surrealistic artists are also excellent technicians. A surrealistic painting usually suggests a specific mood (e.g., eerie, sad, playful, mysterious). 

The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali, 1931 The Harlequin s Carniual, Joan Miro, 1924-1925 Europe after the Rain, Max Ernst, 1940-1942 The Castle of the Pyrenees, Rene Magritte, 1959 Inventions of the Monsters, Salvador Dali, 1937... 

Artists of the 20th Century Rene Magritte. 50 min. crystalproductions.com, 2004. DVD. 

Fig. 1 Rene Magritte, Elective Affinities (1933) - oil on canvas. Private collection...

U.M.Schneede, Rene Magritte Life and Work, Barron s Educational Series, Inc., 1982. 

M.Paquet, Rene Magritte 1898-1967, Benedikt Taschen Verlag GmbH, 1994. 

Fig. 27 (Figure 255) is a rather surrealistic rendition of stalactites (suspended from the ceiling) and stalagmites that rise to meet them in a cave that looks like the open maw of some hideous beast. Stalactites and stalagmites are composed of calcium carbonate (CaCOj) arising from contact of carbonic acid dissolved in water with lime (CaO) in the earth s surface. The wide sky, strange clouds, and bizarre cave seem to anticipate the style of modernist Rene Magritte (1898-1967). 

Figure 35.19. This is not (the smoke of) a pipe, silica aerogel, LED light, 15x5x5 cm. Inspired by a masterpiece of the surrealist painter Rene Magritte This is not a pipe which represents the painting of a pipe (photograph and copyright MICHALOUS, 1/2008).

Rene Magritte,. crits Complets, ed. Andre Blavier (Paris Flammarion, 1979), p. 619. 

Rene Magritte, The Lifeline, in Magritte Ideas and Images, p. 216. 

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