René Magritte Essay -- Arts Paintings Art History

Ren MagritteBelgian Surrealist artist Ren Magritte was a master not only of theobvious, but of the obscure as well. In his artwork, Magritte toyedwith everyday objects, charitable habits and emotions, placing them inforeign contexts and questioning their familiar meanings. He suggestednew interpretations of hoary things in his deceivingly simple paintings,making the commonplace profound and the perspicacious irrational. Hepainted his canvasses in the same manner as he lived his life -- instrange modesty and under constant analysis. Magritte was natural in 1898in the small town of Lessines, a cosmopolitan subject of Belgium that wasgreatly influenced by the French. Twelve years later, Magritte, alongwith his parents and two junior brothers, moved to Chtelet, wherethe future artist studied sketching.On vacations with his grandmother and aunty Flora during the summermonths, Magritte frequented an old cemetery at Soignies. In thiscemetery, Magritte often played with a little girl , opening trap doorsand descending into electric resistance vaults. This experience would prove agreat influence upon his later artwork, as wooden caskets and granitetombst champions recur in many of his paintings. Magritte also developed afascination with religion around this time, often dressing up as apriest and holding mock mass services in complete seriousness. In1912, Rgina Bertinchamp, Magrittes mother, committed suicide bydrowning herself in the Sambre River. The night of her suicide, theMagrittes followed Bertinchamps footprints to the river, where theyfound her dead with her nightgown wrapped around her face. Magrittewas 14 at the time. He would claim years later that his only medical history of his mothers death was his pride at being the centerof attention and his succeeding identity formation as the son of adead woman. nigh critics point out that several of the subjects inMagrittes paintings are veiled in white sheets as a reference to hismothers suicide.A year later , Magrittes initiate moved the family to Charleroi. It wasin Charleroi that Magritte would meet his future wife Georgette Bergeron a carousel at the town fair. However, the two would not see oneanother again until a chance meeting in capital of Belgium years later. InCharleroi, Magritte quickly lost interest in his studies and asked his beat for permission to study at the Acadmie des Beaux-Arts inBrussels. ... ... Faubourgin Paris. The collection caused much scandal, but won few admirers.Soon after, Magritte resigned to his original style, though hebitterly attributed this retroaction to his relish to pleaseGeorgette, who preferred his earlier paintings.He continued to acquire much success all over the military man withpaintings such as LEmpire des Lumires (The Empire of Lights, 1954),which employed banner Surrealist techniques and precise Magrittelines. On August 15, 1967, Magritte died in Brussels. Unlike many ofhis Surrealist counterparts, Magritte lived quite an humbly an d inconuously. He did not draw much attention to himself, and he lived liferelatively uneventfully. Despite his unassuming lifestyle, though,Magritte managed to leave an artistic legacy of transforming theordinary into the fantastic. While some art historians attributeMagrittes art to his desire to oppose and combat the triviality ofeveryday life, others suggest that his work goes beyond escapism andserves to reveal some of the murkier and complex aspects of the humancondition.Whatever the pulse was for his art, it is certain that Magrittesworks are at once hauntingly beautiful and deep provocative.