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
We must not fear daylight just because it almost always illuminates a miserable world.
A truly poetic canvas is an awakened dream.
Only thought can resemble. It resembles by being what it sees, hears, or knows; it becomes what the world offers it.
The purpose of art is mystery.
I like subversive humor, freckles, women's knees and long hair, the laughter of playing children, and a girl running down the street.
Do not accept any explanation of the world either through chance or determinism. You are not responsible for your belief. It is not even you who decides that you are not responsible - and so on to infinity. You are not obliged to believe. There is no point of departure.
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.
I need to see the original paintings just as little as I have to read the original manuscripts of books.
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.
My painting is visible images that conceal nothing... they evoke mystery. Mystery means nothing. It is unknowable.
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.