René Magritte 1898-1967

By Lori Stranger

René Magritte, The Treachery of Images, 1929, oil on canvas, 60.33cm x 81.12 cm, Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Born the 21st of November 1898 in Lessines, Belgium, Rene Magritte’s artistic journey can be said to have started with a suicide. In 1912, after several attempts, Magritte’s mother committed suicide by drowning herself in the local river. Magritte was just 14 years old. A theory, now believed to have been conceived by his nurse, placed Magritte as a witness to his mother’s suicide, having seen his mother fished out of the water with her white dress covering her face. Some art historians have argued that this event inspired his oeuvre of paintings depicting faces covered in white linen such as The Lovers (1928). 

Studying at Brussel’s Academy of Fine arts from 1916-18, he soon pursued design working at a wallpaper factory under the directorship of his previous classmate Victor Servranckx. His early artistic career was markedly influenced by movements such as Futurism, Cubism and Purism but in particular the works of Jean Metzinger and Fernand Léger. However, it was not until 1922 when Magritte would start to develop his soon signature Surrealist style. Upon seeing a reproduction of Giorgio de Chirico’s 1914 The Song of Love, Magritte was inspired by the juxtaposed objects, situating a fragmented classical bust, a rubber glove and a ball with seemingly no explicit relation. 

In 1927, Magritte and his wife moved to Paris where he would meet the founders of Surrealism, André Breton and Paul Éluard. Upon meeting them he began to incorporate text into his works and soon painted his famous 1929 piece, The Treachery of Images. The central composition depicts a pipe beneath which is written, ‘Ceci nest pas une pipe’ (‘This is not a pipe’). Magritte thereby introduces a simple yet powerful notion that no matter how realistically one depicts a painting it is ultimately an illusion and not real. This notion challenges art’s long-standing attempts to imbue realism and trompe l’oeil effect to convince the viewer of the painting’s naturalism. Magritte questions the authority of language and image to dictate meaning. This would come to influence later 20th-century artists such as Joseph Kosuth’s integration of image, text and reality in his 1965 installation, One and Three Chairs. Unlike Magritte’s fellow Surrealist artists such as André Masson, who pursued automatic drawings in order to liberate the ‘id’ unconscious, Magritte illustrates a more deliberate approach. He perhaps demonstrates less of a desire to uncover one’s unconscious desires and actions but to explore the gap between meaning and language. 

In 1930, Magritte and his wife returned to Brussels where he once again took up commercial advertising as complimentary to his paintings incorporating text and image. In 1936 he had his first solo show in the United States at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York and in 1938 in the London Gallery in England, demonstrating his increasing international success.

Against the backdrop of World War Two, Magritte increasingly employed a bright, impressionistic-like palette which art historians have named his ‘Renoir period’ as a response to the bleakness of war. His 1943 painting, The Forbidden Universe departs from his previously photographic-like accuracy instead employing broad brushstrokes in a serene fantasy composition.

In 1946 Magritte signed the manifesto Surrealism in Full Sunlight, demonstrating his break with André Breton. He briefly experimented with what he called his ‘vache’ (cow) style, using vulgar subjects and crude colouring that seemingly parodied the Fauves movement. However, this was short-lived and he soon returned to his iconic Surrealist style and subjects. He enjoyed success during his lifetime, having six major retrospectives in the 1960s alone. 

Along with his success during his lifetime, Magritte’s artistic legacy cannot be underestimated. His influence spans from Pop Art and Conceptualism to the activist art of the 1980s. His prioritisation of concept over the image itself and association with commercial art inspired artists such as Andy Warhol, Martin Kippenberger and Robert Gober. Magritte died on the 15th August 1967 yet his legacy lives on to this day.

Bibliography

“René Magritte - Biography and Legacy.” The Art Story. Accessed 16th November 2019. https://www.theartstory.org/artist/magritte-rene/life-and-legacy/#biography_header.

“René Magritte.” Encyclopedia Brittanica. Accessed 16th November 2019.https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rene-Magritte.