Magritte

Been to Liverpool today to see the Magritte exhibition in The Tate gallery. Had quite a nice, if rather solitary day sampling cappuccinos. Did a bit of reading too but mostly tried to relax. Nearly got the hang of it now.

Magritte is a famous Belgian surrealist painter. (Not that many people can name more than two or three surrealist painters in total.)
He's famous for painting a picture of a pipe with the words underneath that said "this is not a pipe". Meaning it was a picture of a pipe. It was mostly in French when he did that, but they had an English version too.
His most famous image though is perhaps the man with an apple in front of his face. You can probably see it by following this link:
Son of Man (better not put the picture here as it's copyrighted).

I remember seeing a man like that in a Yes video. And in the (inferior) remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.

An interesting title, "Son of Man". I probably read religious motifs into paintings when they're not meant. (unless it's in the eye of the beholder anyway).

Men in bowler hats, apples, clouds, wooden balustrades. Magritte defined, developed, and deployed his own unique language of icons. His pictures are sometimes wondrously imaginative - if faintly disturbing.

My favourite picture, or rather series of picture, Dominion or Empire of Light look quite ordinary at first. There's some normal houses and buildings, some with feeble lights inside, and a glowing streetlamp outside. It's quite dark and hard to make out many details. But then you look up and the sky above the buildings is the bright blue of a summer daytime. It's as though the people below are living in darkness, doing what they can with their feeble electric(?) lights, while above there is clear daylight that they just can't see. A bit metaphorical that, certainly for those of a religious persuasion.

Isaiah 9: 2
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned.

Location:Tate Liverpool