{"id":268878,"date":"2024-12-07T15:13:41","date_gmt":"2024-12-07T06:13:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/?p=268878"},"modified":"2024-12-07T15:13:41","modified_gmt":"2024-12-07T06:13:41","slug":"surrealist-artist-rene-magritte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/art\/surrealist-artist-rene-magritte\/","title":{"rendered":"Record Breaking Surrealist Artist Ren\u00e9 Magritte"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ren\u00e9 Magritte<\/h3>\r\n

O<\/span>n 19th November 2024 in Christie\u2019s New York, a painting by Ren\u00e9 Magritte achieved a record breaking price for the artist\u2019s work at a price of USD 121.16m. That painting was titled L\u2019empire des lumi<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>res<\/em> (1954). Merely two years ago, the last record set by Magritte for another artwork from the same series titled L\u2019empire des lumi<\/em>\u00e8<\/em>res<\/em> (1961) was sold at USD 79.24m in Sotheby\u2019s London. Ren\u00e9 Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist who was active as an artist up to 1967 when he passed away. These recent sales continue to solidify Magritte\u2019s position as one of the forefront Surrealist artists. On top of smashing his own record price, the latest record also sets the highest price for any Surrealist artwork.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"adf-web-magazine-ceci-nest-pas-une-pipe-by-rene-magritte\"<\/a>

\u201cCeci n\u2019est pas une pipe\u201d (\u201cThis is not a pipe\u201d) at the Magritte Museum. Image by Von Chua.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

Having revisited the Magritte Museum<\/a>\u00a0in Belgium earlier this month to view his dream-like artworks shrouded in mystery, this recent news came as a pleasant surprise. Not afraid of using words and texts within his artwork, one may have seen his painting with \u201cCeci n\u2019est pas une pipe<\/em>\u201d (\u201cThis is not a pipe\u201d) written directly under a smoking pipe drawn. It seems like a contradiction, but when Magritte was asked about it, his witty response was that of course it was not a pipe - try to fill it with tobacco. Of course! His response explains his thinking that it is a painting of a pipe, not an actual pipe. As you read his text \u201cThis is not a pipe\u201d, you would have been reading it from his painting. This particular artwork has also sparked other creatives and brands such as Delvaux to issue a leather goods bag with the text \u201cCeci n\u2019est pas une Delvaux<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 (\u201cThis is not a Delvaux\u201d) written on it. Delvaux, who happens to be founded in Belgium in 1829 is one of the oldest luxury leather goods companies in the world.<\/p>\r\n

Tracing back to Magritte\u2019s early works, one can see that his early works can be traced back to influences from Cubism, Futurism, and also the Dada period. Margritte attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in 1916 and had traditional and classical training. It was said that he rejected the conventional trends within the art scene at that time. His work which can be seen today challenges the viewer\u2019s assumptions about the world, challenges the mind with intellectual inquiry through daily objects such as a pipe in those days, and blurs objects within reality and the dream state.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\"adf-web-magazine-the-human-condition-by-rene-magritte\"<\/a>

The Human Condition (1962) at the Magritte Museum. Image by Von Chua.<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n

Compared to other Surrealist artists, Magritte\u2019s sketches and paintings have a realistic quality to them. For example, The Human Condition (1962) <\/em>seen in the above image showcases Magritte painting the scene where a painting is set in front of a window. And if you blink quickly, the painting itself and the actual view outside the window merge into one. Returning to the idea of the Ceci n\u2019est pas une pipe<\/em> (This is not a pipe) artwork, Magritte is once again playing with visual paradoxes. When Magritte was alive, his peers such as Salvador Dali and Joan Miro who were also active around the same time were developing their art within a more abstract and dreamlike quality, exploring the human subconsciousness. Magritte\u2019s precise use of lines and deep colours also pairs well with the occasional contrast, such as the sky and the clouds that often reappear in his paintings to represent the nature of reality.<\/p>\r\n

The signages and labellings in the Magritte Museum are not the most thoroughly considered for the English speaking crowd. Though the museum was filled with tourists from Europe, USA and Asia alike, who are unlikely to all be fluent in French, the artworks presented appear to transcend the language barrier. Does it matter if some of Magritte\u2019s texts or descriptions are not literally translated for understanding? According to Magritte, if he explained his artwork, it would remove the mystery too. If Magritte planned the museum\u2019s experience himself, would he have consciously and deliberately set up these moments of mystery too to allow viewers to interpret his or her own view of a painting?<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

It means nothing because mystery means nothing\u2026 Art is art, and everyone has their own interpretation.<\/p>\r\n

Ren\u00e9 Magritte<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

In this second visit to the Magritte Museum, I also read further into Magritte\u2019s personal life. He had a muse and confidant, Gaby Matalon, who modelled for some of his paintings and was someone he had a passionate connection with. It was said that the affair with Matalon was known by Magritte\u2019s wife Georgette Berger; Magritte and his wife Georgette remained married until he passed away. Upon closer inspection, the complicated relationship in Magritte\u2019s personal life slowly unravels within his work and can be detected within his exploration of the theme of concealment and frustrated desires. These themes perhaps reflected his inner thoughts and were the outlet for the frustrations in his personal life. For example, in a painting titled The Lovers<\/em> (1928), Magritte paints an intimate embrace between two lovers, but there is a layer of fabric covering the two people\u2019s faces, concealing the people and also preventing the intimate embrace between the two lovers. Was this Magritte\u2019s frustrations captured on canvas? Within the same year, Magritte also created another three pieces of artwork; The Lovers<\/em> (1928) is part of a four-part painting. Does he always work on themes that surround his life at each moment? Magritte appears to be a complex person, and his work as an artist almost acts as a series of intellectual challenges that interrogate the various themes that interest him.<\/p><\/article>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ren\u00e9 Magritte n 19th November 2024 in Christie\u2019s New York, a painting by Ren\u00e9 Magritte achieved a record break […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":268879,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"\"Record Breaking Surrealist Artist Ren\u00e9 Magritte\" #ADF #Webmagazine #Ren\u00e9Magritte","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[6],"tags":[54,55,121,177],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/adf-web-magazine-ceci-nest-pas-une-pipe-by-rene-magritte.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268878"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adfwebmagazine.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}