Rene Magritte / Surrealism

Rene Magritte
- Belgian Surrealist painter
- Made a living designing wall paper and drawing fashion advertisements
- Took part in founding the Belgian Surrealist group
- Experimented in Cubist-Futurist art pre 1925
- Post 1925 focused on depicting recognisable objects in alien settings under the influence of de Chirico
- His work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality
- When Magritte was 13, his mother committed suicide by drowning herself in a river. When her body was retrieved, supposedly her dress was partly covering her face, which is said to be the reasoning behind the obscuring of faces in Magritte's paintings.

'The Annunciation' 1930
Oil paint on canvas

'The Spirit of Geometry' 1937
Gouache on paper

The Treachery of Images

'The Son of Man' 1946

'The Lovers II' 1928

The Great War

The Lovers

'The Secret Double' 1927

Not really liking this work to be honest. I think the ideas behind it are good, like "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" which, in English, means "this is not a pipe", which it isn't...it's a painting of a pipe! But other than that I don't like his work, it's a bit too surreal for me :/

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rene-magritte-15537
http://www.renemagritte.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte