Biography Of René Magritte

2007-09-04T21:14:00.001-07:00

René Magritte

(November 21, 1898 – August 15, 1967)

Image courtesy of http://www.wallonie-en-ligne.net/1995_cent_wallons/image/magritte_rene.gif

René François Ghislain Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist.He was one of the founders of Belgian surrealism in 1926 and became well known for a number of witty and amusing images with used out of place and out of proportion imagery to provoke thoughts.He began drawing lessons in 1910. His mother committed suicide in 1912 by drowning herself in the River Sambre. Magritte was present when her body was retrieved from the water. The image of his mother floating, her dress obscuring her face, may have influenced a 1927-1928 series of paintings of people with cloth obscuring their faces.

L'Invention de la vie. 1928. Oil on canvas.

Image courtesy of http://www.abcgallery.com/M/magritte/magritte6.html

Magritte's work rose considerably in the 1960s, and his imagery has influenced Pop, Minimalist, and Conceptual art of the world. His imagery became familiar to a wider public through reproduction on rock album covers, music videos and numerous films like'The Exorcist' which was inspired by one of his paintings.

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His Philosophy:

His work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. He points out that no matter how closely, through realism-art, we come to depicting an item accurately, we never do catch the item itself.

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He Quotes:

"My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, 'What does that mean?'. It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable."

“Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”

“Only thought can resemble. It resembles by being what it sees, hears, or knows; it becomes what the world offers it.”


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His Style:

René Magritte's style of painting resulted in his being called a "Father of American Pop Art" in 1961. But he was not pleased by this association and felt that Pop Art was a joke and used the term sugar-coated Dadaism to describe it.

His art shows a more representational style of surrealism compared to the "automatic" style seen in works by other artists. In addition to fantastic elements, his work is often witty and amusing. His style was also very realistic, with very sharp and crisp lines
and 'not blurred'. He would sometimes take two real objects which don't belong together, and add them to his paintings. Likewise, he took mundane objects, pulled them through his imagination and forced them out the other side in such unreal combinations and relationships that they could cause the viewer to question the very nature of reality. His works were efforts to overthrow the sense of the familiar.

The Acrobat's Exercises. 1928. Oil on canvas.
Image coutesy of http://www.abcgallery.com/M/magritte/magritte46.html

Time Transfixed, 1938. Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of http://www.lacma.org/art/MagritteIndex.aspx

La Thérapeute, 1941. Gouache sur papier.
Image courtesy of http://www.abcgallery.com/M/magritte/magritte20.html

Personal Values, 1952. Oil on canvas
Image courtesy of http://www.lacma.org/art/MagritteIndex.aspx

Golconda, 1953. Oil On Canvas
Image courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/71/Golconde.jpg

Mysteries Of The Horizon, 1955, Oil On Canvas
Image courtesy of http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/Mysteries_of_the_Horizon.jpg

The Son Of Man, 1964. Oil On Canvas
Image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Magritte_TheSonOfMan.jpg

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His Vision:

Allows one to conjure up a state of being which has become rare and precious, which makes it possible to observe in silence.

Reading and reflection call for silence, listening no less. Silence can be used for waiting for an illumined vision of things.

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His Influences:

In his early career, he was influenced by the Cubists and the Futurists. And soon, he was a member of the second branch of surrealist art which created more concrete and dream-like images rather than 'automatic' that infuses more on calligraphy as a way of expressing the subconscious freely.

Magritte was a master of this art and were heavily influenced by Giorgio de Chirico, an Italian painter whose works were such an enormous factor in the development of Surrealism

Another major influence on Magritte's work was a cinematic one. A five-part serial, 'Fantomas', by the French movie-maker Louis Feuillade was the main cinematic influence on Magritte . This series of films dealt with a character named Fantomas who captured the imagination of Magritte as well as many other surrealists

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Fame:

He was one of the greats of the Surrealist movement and known as the Master Of Surrealism of the time.

But, the world needed over a quarter of a century to discover that his work has both philosophical and poetic content which corresponds to certain social and intellectual trends, particularly in the second half of the twentieth century.

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Bibliography

2007-08-31T15:11:00.000-07:00

Bibliography:

René Magritte (00:54, September 7th,2007) In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 20:30, September 7th, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte

Rene Magritte (11:03, July 24th, 2007) Five Dock. Retrieved on 22:01, September 7th, 2007 from http://ahps.fivedock.syd.catholic.edu.au/html/magritte.html

Magritte(10:02, September 3rd, 2007) Expo Shop. Retrieved on 22:20, September 7th, 2007 from http://www.magritte.com/2.cfm

Art Exhibitions (03:00, August 24th, 2007) Los Angelas County Museum of Art. Retrieved on 22:40, September 7th, 2007 from http://www.lacma.org/art/MagritteIndex.aspx

Rene Magritte (17:08, September 4th, 2007) The Artchive. Retrieved on 23:00, September 7th, 2007 from http://www.artchive.com/artchive/M/magritte.html

René Magritte(14:13, September 2nd, 2007) Olga Gallery. Retrieved on 23:29, September 7th, 2007 from http://www.abcgallery.com/M/magritte/magritte.html

The Chosen Designer

2007-08-30T03:48:00.001-07:00

Hi! This is my first time using blogger. Anyway, Ive chosen René Magritte as the designer. He's a surrealist and famous in the 60's. I love his works as it questions me and plays around with ones thoughts. This blog is mainly for DesTi 1 Final Assignment and I do appreciate if you guys could leave comments so I can improve on my works.

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-Aidah

Aidahyusuf

Biography Of René Magritte

Bibliography

The Chosen Designer