Rene Magritte, one of the Great minds and talents of the Surrealist movement , influenced many modern artists and artistic movements. He was known for his use of everyday objects juxtaposed with those of the bizarre and erotic.
His works helped the western mind grapple with paradox of words and their meanings. In one of his best known series of works, La trahison des image ( The Treachery of Images) he used an image which looked like an advertisement for a pipe, with the words “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (”This is not a pipe”) below it. Even though this seems contradictory it is actually true because it is not a pipe but merely a representation of it. This is particularly interesting when you see that most of our interaction with the world is through a mental construct largely relying on words and their meanings. We constantly are surfing the quantum wave of representation, form and meaning.
To see Magritte’s influence on modern culture , you need look no further than this excellent example on the Threadless Tee , This is not a Pipe by Genee Cosden .
It brings a fresh perspective to this surrealistic classic.By referencing The Super Mario Bros she shows how our modern culture obsessed with facades, illusion and representation has taken the unreality of words to a new level.
Another great and similarly themed Painting by Magritte , the Son of Man . Magritte said this about it,
“At least it hides the face partly. Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present”
We recently saw a really witty and funny Parody of this tee here at Springleap. Sundae Best by Vonmonkey has been a great seller and a very good example of Surrealism’s place in modern T-shirt design.
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