Rene Magritte Throughout the history of art, we as intellectuals have always searched for meaning behind the piece that has been created. While some artists convey a deep true meaning, there are others who dabble in the world or surrealism. Surrealism was a cultural movement that began in the early 1920’s, and aimed at expressing imaginative dreams and visions free from the conscious rational control (Dictonary.com). The purpose of surrealism was to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality. It was a movement that welcome the use of the bizarre and dreamlike elements in paintings (Stern, Fred). Rene Magritte is probably the best known Surrealist artist of the 20th century. Rene Magritt was born in Lessiness Belgium in 1898 and entered into art school when he was 12. Rene recalls that he founded his inspiration in becoming a painter when he came across a man who was painting in the cemetery that he and his friend often played in. Magritte had also suffered tragedy at the …show more content…
He uses repetition and often the same images from painting to painting. This may come from his background in working with advertising illustration, which is how he supported himself and his wife. He was also fascinated with use of words in his paintings that further challenged the distinctions that others often fail to make between actual objects and symbols (Sartorius, Tara). This type of illustration work is visible in his piece The Treachery of Images. Magritte uses a combination of words with his image that cleverly highlights the gap between language and meaning. Ceci n’est pas de l’art -this is not a pipe. Most of would at first think, yes it is a pipe, but in fact Magritte is right, it is not a pipe, it is a painting of a pipe. Magritte’s art was intended to bring people out of their ruts, to shock, stun and irritate them. He wanted to bring their thoughts out into the