Culture

Rene Magritte: Not a painter but a thinking person who paints

Deutsche Welle has published a text on Belgian Surrealist painter René Magritte, who died 50 years ago today.

An exhibition of 70 of his Surrealist paintings was held recently at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt.

“The exhibition in Frankfurt dealt with Magritte’s examination of philosophy. His pictures touch on the relationship between images and language and the exhibition shares the title of one of his most famous paintings, which bears the words “This is not a pipe.”

Setting up a conflict between the image and the text, Magritte expressed his doubts about the possibilities of representing reality, questioning our very perception of it”, the article states.

“The aim of the Surrealists was to shake up the way people were used to seeing, experiencing and thinking about things… He [Magritte] wasn’t interested in prophesies and visions. And he didn’t see himself first and foremost as an artist, but as “a thinking person who paints.” Magritte later intensively read the works of German philosophers like Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and Martin Heidegger and French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty”, the author writes.

Years after his death Magritte’s images have become beloved elements of pop culture.  Reproductions of his works can be found under the hashtag #renemagritte.

Read full text here.

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