Rene Magritte
Rene Magritte
René François Ghislain Magrittewas a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images. Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality. His imagery has influenced pop, minimalist and conceptual art...
NationalityBelgian
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth21 November 1898
CityLessines, Belgium
CountryBelgium
I think we are responsible for the universe, but that doesn't mean we decide anything.
If one looks at a thing with the intention of trying to discover what it means, one ends up no longer seeing the thing itself, but of thinking of the question that is raised.
To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been.
People who look for symbolic meaning fail to grasp the inherent poetry and mystery of the images.
My painting is visible images which conceal nothing... they evoke mystery and indeed when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question 'What does that mean'? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.
My painting is visible images that conceal nothing... they evoke mystery. Mystery means nothing. It is unknowable.
We must not fear daylight just because it almost always illuminates a miserable world.
A truly poetic canvas is an awakened dream.
An object is not so attached to its name that we cannot find another one that would suit it better.
An object never serves the same function as its image - or its name.
Painting bores me like everything else. Unfortunately, painting is one of the activities - it is bound up in the series of activities - that seems to change almost nothing in life, the same habits are always recurring.
We are surrounded by curtains. We only perceive the world behind a curtain of semblance. At the same time, an object needs to be covered in order to be recognized at all.
I have few illusions: the cause is lost in advance. As for me, I do my part, which is to drag a fairly drab existence to its conclusion.
Everything that is visible hides something that is invisible.