Rene Magritte

Rene Magritte, Personal Values, 1952, oil on canvas.

In this artwork, Magritte creates the surreal from the ordinary by changing the scale of the objects in the artwork.

What you need to know about the artist and the artwork:

• A Belgium painter born in 1898
• Magritte was a member of the Surrealists.
• He was a realist however in his application of paint and the extreme detail in which he painted his subjects.
• Created his surrealist paintings by juxtaposing seemingly dissimilar objects or portraying ordinary objects in an unusual light: at closer look however, most of these objects hold a metaphorical connection.
  

For example, lets look at Time Transfixed.
Upon first inspection, the train seems to be going through the fire place.

By looking closer, we notice that the fire place clearly mimics a tunnel, and the smoke from the train temporarily replaces the smoke from the fire that should be within the train.

However, this is only a moment in time. As the train progresses, it will no longer be in the "tunnel", and the smoke will no longer appear to be that of the fire. It is "time transfixed".

• Defying gravity is one of Magritte's repeating motifs.
• Uses traditional perspective to create his surreal works look as if they are plausible.
• Juxtaposes text and image quite often -- understood the power and possibilities of both the word and image.
  

The image below is This Is Not a Pipe. At first glance the viewer thinks "yes, it is", but in actuality, Magritte is right. This is not a pipe but rather it is a painting of a pipe. In this way he creates humor through his artwork.