Rene Magritte & Surrealism Reading/Questions

1. Surrealism is art that uses two or more images that juxtapose each other.  The images combine to create a piece that looks both real and unreal.

2. The motif that Magritte uses in most of his works is a bowler hat.  The hat covering the face is significant because it symbolizes that he doesn't want people to know his full story, he likes to remain unclear.  Magritte has stated that the man with the bowler hat is him.

3. In Golconda, it is important that Magritte varied his work because he shows that he can add dimension to his paintings and that there are other sides to him.  In this painting the faces are not covered by anything and the painting is actually done with great detail.  This adds depth to his work because it proves that he can do more than one style and can change up what he normally does.

4.  Surreal artists tend to create strange worlds in their art because they like to play around with the idea of the subconscious mind taking over.  The subconscious is a term associated with psychology and psychologist Sigmund Freud.  It deals with what your mind is fixated on, but you are unaware of.  Surreal artists like to use worlds that would occur in dreams, which are controlled by the subconscious.

5. Juxtaposition helps Magritte create surrealistic pieces because he likes to put objects together that would not normally be associated with each other.  This makes the pieces more unusual and creative.  Magritte uses altered scale in his paintings to disorient the observer and leave his work open to interpretation.  Also, he uses language in his pieces to make you feel like a part of his work.

6. One theory as to  why Magritte might cover up the faces in his works could be because of the traumatic incident he witnessed when he was 12 of his mother drowning herself.  It is said that there was a piece of cloth covering her face.  However, others say that Magritte was not actually there to witness this, and that has nothing to do with what inspired his unique take on surrealism.

7. Magritte strived for realism and precision in his paintings because he says that realism allows the observer to focus on the subject of the work, not on the techniques used to paint.  He uses a vast amount of detail in his paintings to ensure that they look somewhat realistic.

8. Other work:

The Victory

Perpetual Motion

Some techniques used to enhance these works are realism, juxtaposition, altered scale, and mystery.