How Magritte Painted His Trauma
2023 ж. 2 Қыр.
149 058 Рет қаралды
René Magritte is one of the most famous surrealist painter, yet his relationship with the field psychoanalysis, intertwined with surrealism, was a little complicated. Let's look at 6 Magritte paintings that may reveal his childhood trauma.
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I love Magritte in that his painting just looks so ordinary, like it's just plain compared to many others, but the way it is made is so weird and uncanny that you can't help but keep on looking at it trying to figure it out. It is just enigmatic.
I just finished reading one of the only books that gathered together his interviews and letters, and his line of thinking and creating is very similar to what you described here. The ordinary made extraordinary but not in a tritely symbolic way
Are the flowers in the last painting Forget-me-nots? Maybe something like, don't forget her when she was happy, either. As someone traumatized by the death of my mother when she was too young, it took me several years to realize I had almost forgotten memories of her when she was well, vibrant and happy, because memories of her in illness, frustration and pain had filled those spaces in my mind.
Thank you so much for sharing. It's remarkable how our own experiences greatly affect how we perceive artworks. Your comment is very appreciated, thank you.
Are they hydrangeas?
I find Magritte's "Rape" disturbing, first time I saw it and I thought the body of woman become her face literally and morally, It's the first thing that attract men, and it's strangely disturbing
Yeah I agree. I think it represents the way rapists (and by extension patriarchy) dehumanise women by treating their bodies as objects thus stripping them of personhood.
@@marianatheschizoid5912unfortunately it’s got to the point where now women enjoy sexualising themselves too. the world lacks self awareness and modesty and everything is so perverted
I found it disquieting seeing it here just now. Perhaps because, ostensibly the body is the object of desire (the male gaze) while the face ( eyes, 'the window of the soul') comprise a deeper human connection. The face; is it really the first thing that attracts a man? There are some shallow men. To quote Olive (Jennifer Tilly), a chorus girl in Bullets Over Broadway (1995): "Tits and ass! Tits and ass! That's all they're interested in"
@@marianatheschizoid5912 The patriarchy. ಠ_ಠ
A woman’s face isn’t her body? Sounds misogynist ngl
A very good demonstration of why psychoanalysis can harm art interpretation. One piece of knowledge renders all symbolism tainted....
I remember some interview with film director David Lynch years ago in which he mentioned that he had been going to see a psychiatrist for awhile but he decided to quit seeing him because he felt those psychiatric sessions were affecting his work in a negative way.
How biographical information can delimit or circumscribe our critical interpretation of, and subjective response to art.
@@stuartwray6175 I would read that thesis paper.
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I feel it can definitely be interpreted that the imagery of his mother’s obscured face greatly influenced his work. From personal experience (and the common experience of others) specific details of a traumatic event can stand out above anything else. I can remember every detail of a traumatic event that happened when I was young, but my defining memory is of a particular angle I saw of my room when I collapsed with grief. If I painted, I know I would paint my room from this angle to represent this event. I’d feel compelled to. Maybe Magritte felt compelled to paint the detail that haunted him most: the obscured face in white cloth. Then, he expanded the imagery of an obscured face by painting his figures facing away or placing an unusual object in front of them.
The painting “Lovers II” I interpret as being another expression of what Aldous Huxley put so beautifully in his book “The Doors of Perception”: “We live together, we act on, and react to, one another; but always and in all circumstances we are by ourselves. The martyrs go hand in hand into the arena; they are crucified alone. *Embraced, the lovers desperately try to fuse their insulated ecstasies into a single self-transcendence; in vain.* By its very nature every embodied spirit is doomed to suffer and enjoy in solitude. Sensations, feelings, insights, fancies - all these are private and, except through symbols and at second hand, incommunicable. We can pool information about experiences, but never the experiences themselves. From family to nation, every human group is a society of island universes.” Aldous Huxley, The Doors of Perception
Beautiful!
wow that’s really pretty :o
I certainly wouldn't call that pretty, it is in some ways horrifying, but it is quite eloquently stated, and fits that painting very well. Thank you for sharing this excellent quote.
@@skramzy6628 I use pretty very loosely lmao
It's a point of view, a bit radical, presented as hard facts and truths. It's a rather ungracious and misleading way to look at life, but it must have been in fashion at some point. The truth is never to be found in radical or extreme summaries... it is worked out by compromise. Truth is fertile and fatal, not either or... The truth might be : information transference goes beyond mere words, consciousness is porous from one individual to the next, not solely by way of communication but by ways we are not even aware of... and there is such a thing as communion. So Aldous could widen his o so sharp philosophical angle there.
I saw "Lovers 2" for the first time at the New York Moma last year. I broke down right in the middle of the crowded gallery and cried. It is the painting that inspired me to peruse oil painting. its what I think of when I paint about my own losses.
Hope your painting journey has been going well :]
The lovers 1 and lovers 2 gave the strongest impression on me, they are creepy, and within that context. I imagine two people who want to conceal themselves from the world and get into their own secret. Their love is only for them and not for the rest to see, so it's hidden behind veils. Also for private and intimate reasons, to have a little dark space for yourself in a somewhat public area, only shared with your loved one, from a perspective only shared between two. It also works if they are completely alone in the wooden area or in the room, because it gives a peculiar feeling. Even though it's darker and you don't see your loved one. You feel and hear their breathing, feel their warmth, can hear their voice and the smooth veil owned by your partner, and you can imagine their beautiful face. Now in that way, if one stranger happens to pass by. They don't get to see your partner's face during the act, only you can get a hint of that face by your imagination or memory, making the love even more exclusive between the two of you. I imagine this couple kissing each other at their wedding with their veils on. Because even though they are standing before all their family members and friends, in a church. They want the special occasion to be only for them and just let the guests get a small glimpse. Also in general, very romantic for the couple to find their own unique way to express love to each other. Mysterious, comforting, exciting, somewhat superstitious.
That's a very good interpretation
I spent a month as an intern at the Guggenheim in Venice the early 80's, with duties which included acting as "security" which meant telling French tourists they had to take their raincoats off in the museum (haha). I stared at 2 of these paintings(among others), for hours at a time, not having really been exposed to modern art before. This was definitely a turning point for me in terms of art appreciation. I also remember the real security on site, in a museum containing millions of dollars worth of work, consisting of one young man, with a droopy moustache, shirt open to his navel, a handlebar moustache, pants that bagged due to the revolver on his hip, and an attention span focused mainly on the uni girls who worked there. Never occurred to any of us that a robbery might happen. haha.
Really loved the message you gave at the end of adapting what the painting means to our own thoughts of it, it’s good to analyze paintings without a knowledge of history, it makes us actually put our mind into what a painting makes us feel and what it must mean to us.
Great video, I always loved Magritte’s work without knowing much about him; I think hearing his mother’s backstory does add an interesting perspective to all the obscured faces throughout his works. The Great War absolutely feels like a beautiful conclusion to some sort of common thread that seems so have at least something to do with the backstory.
Knowing the history allows us to speculate on what may be his own personal symbolism. Of course that is just one tiny aspect of many. There is the beauty of the art, but there is also the collaboration between the artist and the viewer. Just like reading great literature, there is the work and then there is the world built from the work in the viewers mind.
The artist would have been glad yo know that I have experienced these paintings many times, but I am only now learning of his trauma. I felt the work before it was changed by analysis.
To me, while Magritte's experiences may have been the inspiration behind the pieces, the paintings themselves rather dictate psychological concepts and thought instead of depicting experience. So the viewer comes to the content of the work themselves, but might find alignment with the subject matter that I'm sure undoubtedly influenced them. I believe Magritte was hesistant about labelling his works as representations of the traumatic experiences because they would take away from it
The main problem when analyzing surrealism is linearity of interpretations i think. Symbols are crossroads of a mnyriad of personal and collective meanings which should diifract like colors in a prism to the observer. The second painting may as well be of his mother, but also that piece of cloth may represent death in general, being cloth sensuality too (and the lovers show that eros and thanatos feel as well); the men behind her society peering into Magritte's life but maybe also society exerting psychological preassure on humans like him or her mother, and also men in general vs. women, as well as other more general interpretations. That can be said of all these paintings and I'd agree that if I was the painter I would feel offended by the linearity of someone saying "this painting is about your mother": even if that person will submit other theories straight after, language makes us speak of one thing at a time, painted symbols don't. They don't to the point that an artist's own interpretations of his work may as well be "contaminated" by other cultural meanings the painted symbol gathered throughout the ages. The danger is rationalizing that multiplicity into a single interpretation, the most dangerous one of them in this video is with the second artwork, "if anything maybe this painting shows Magritte's doubts about the death of his mother, what if she was muredered?"; same with "perhaps Magritte was able to put this trauma behind and is done grieving", what if the artist just wished to depict a good peaceful portrait (which by the way shouldn't uniquely be either his mother OR women in general OR just an allegory of peace, but all of them) even if he would still be grieving days after? It wasnt' common to be like Van Gogh, were his brush strokes couldn't elude his mental states. I would disagree the most with that way of transforming these floating surrealist ideas into a narrative, instead of letting them interact in hteir permutative way. This happened a lot with Dalí too. That painting is more a representation or comment on death, suicide, humans, men, morbid curiosity (of death), solitude, these ones in general, and his mother and himself on the more specific side (the specific, then, may play with the general, Magritte and grief, Magritte and solitude; his mother and death, his mother and men, etc.).
Nope. Everything is his dead mom. Thank you.
Incredible. As a budding artist myself, I must say that I so appreciate your dedication to subjectivity. It was a fun little ride you just took me on.
My mother died suddenly of an aneurysm earlier this year, only 56. The Great War painting has just struck me. My eyes are welling with tears. I haven’t been able to envision a time where the darkness and grieving can be gone but that painting gives me a semblance of hope. Even though the pain will never go away, a time will come where I can think of the beautiful and heartwarming memories and embrace them without the shadow of death eclipsing everything. The way her face is still obscured but by a less horrific object is incredible. I don’t know how to describe it. All this from a depiction of the painting on a tiny screen. I don’t know, I’m just rambling to no one here I guess but I can’t help myself.
Brilliant discussion as always. I really hope these videos are used in schools to help people appreciate art and how it can help you understand you
Art is communication. Psychoanalysis forces the context and only works if its language fits its subject. Different artists took different views on interpretation. Sometimes meaning is concealed because it should remain hidden. Sometimes meaning is concealed for deeper understanding. Meaning cannot really be divorced from intent. It ceases to be meaningful.
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At fourteen, Magritte would have been figuring out his sexuality, his identity, and where he belongs in society. Given his adolescence, his mother's suicide, and the onset of WWI, it is understandable how death, sex, and identity become conflated in the dream-like landscape of his paintings. The identity of the people in his paintings is often disguised or hidden. Most bizarre is the nude framed as a face. It is dehumanizing, as the framing appears to depict a face, but instead what is shown is an anonymous female torso.
thanks for covering this artwork, it has always been my favourite painting by Magritte
Absolutely love your channel. I’ve been sharing to my friends n family because I’m obsessed with getting to know the artists I’ve always admired. Thank you 🙏
I love magritte's paintings, i drew the false mirror in middle school cause i liked and still like drawing eyes a lot, it came out so well my teacher praised me for it unprompted, im still proud about it :)
1. i think the lovers is so compelling because it really hits at the nature of separation and identity and uncertainty in any kind of love. we love alone together. it makes me think about my mom and the question "why do you love me?". im lesbian, and my mom doesn't know, and im not 200% sure she'd still love me the same if she found out. as it stands, she loves who she thinks i am, not who i am, which is really a very lonely feeling. but thats the nature of being loved- you can't ever be fully known. even if she knew i was lesbian, she could not know me completely. thats so sad. thats so scary. -but i don't think incompleteness of understanding automatically equates to incompleteness of love, you know? 2. this is kind of off topic, but a youtuber i like made a video "subjectivity in art" that i think ud find interesting :0 he talks kinda fast tho so be warned kzhead.info/sun/erSrfrutp6KDlps/bejne.html
Absolutely nailed the ending. Looking for someone to simply just give us the answer is too easy. Developing our own interpretations, thoughts, and appreciation, although sometimes intimidating or hard, is what allows for art to be beautiful.
I’ve seen a very few of these paintings, they made a lasting impression on me. Thank Y❤️U for teaching me the painter’s name & history !!!
Beautifully done! Thank you!
My favorite. Just saw his paintings in Chicago. Thank you!
I love interpreting art in my own silly way. I do this in class with texts and images and I started doing this with a few characters I like. i think i'm gonna get MORE into it. I find projecting my ideas and experiences onto abstract art comforting in a way, because of the freedom you have. I loved that conclusion by the way!
Thank you for your work!
The month of the grape harvest is my very favorite work by him
These paintings fascinating... There's something serene & beautiful which I can't figure out exactly but I can feel it by looking at them..
Usually the surreal tone is represented by the oneiric, Magrite uses more natural figures and brings a tone of dreams, imagination sometimes even terror he brings with his imaginative portraits. I said a lot but the thing is that Margrite is one of the best representatives of this common absurdist I love this art there are people who do this that appeared on this channel, but Margrite is special with these colors and compositions is unique to him.
Attended an expansive exhibition of Magritte's work at the Centre Pompadou in Paris a few years ago. Incredible artist and amazing exhibit.
These are great paintings, thanks for sharing! I had no idea about the artist's mother. Thats really sad.
One more way of looking at the lovers II is “a denied love kiss”. Which for me, suits the painting very well in meaning
For me “lovers 2” is about lovers who can’t be together physically, so the kiss each one experiences is ghostly because the other lover is not present or perhaps they kiss an unwanted person imagining their actual loved one
Great work man thanks very much.❤❤
ive actually seen the thumbnail painting in person and its one of my favorite paintings ive ever seen
Thank you very much for the great presentation and all the information. Concerning the painting "lovers 2" I believe that their faces are covered because they want to hide their selves, their real personality, a state of having secrets
The last picture she has a "FORGET ME NOT" bouquet.
3:10 When talking about “The Menaced Assassin” in the same vain of it depicting Magrittes mother, it makes me think that the assassin isn’t truly a “physical” assassin, but more of a personification of mental illness. It’s a killer which killed his mother in silence, while Magritte and his brothers can only watch, helplessly. I believe that the meaning of the detectives is that, sure, mental illness can be caught (detected early on), it’s killings can never truly be brought to justice.
Thank you. This was fascinating.
Thank you for another stunningly beautiful and insightful video, especially on Magritte who I’ve only recently come across after seeing The Lovers II at MoMA! I’ve been following your channel for a while as part of my attempt to better understand art history and each of your videos has helped nurture my interest more and more - You’re doing an amazing job!
Wow! What a touching comment! Thank you! I'm glad you got to see The Lovers II at MoMa, I've never been!
Just discovered your channel - wow!
PLEASE SHOWCASE FRANZ KLINE! He moved me to start painting and is a huge inspiration to me
i wonder what went on in his childhood home that was never spoken of.
At first I was shocked silly by this revelation. It's an obsessive sort of subject, this trauma of young Magritte. But on reflection, I would like to think that that Magritte engaged both directly with his traumatic experience, and also reflectively with what it suggested to him. I believe now that he must have been an amazing human being.
Now? Do you feel disdain or sth for people who deal with their trauma in ways you don't understand? In ways you deem obsessive or somehow "too much"?
@@nogodsnomasters6963 Certainly not disdain. Don't understand "sth" however.
Keep doing what you are doing! You are fantastic! Your career will grow and grow! I don't comment much but I wanted to give you a shout out.
When art is tough in schools it's always from an analytic viewpoint and I think that it pushes away people from enjoying art. when I talk with friends that aren't really in to art about art I always start by saying this isn't a riddle the artist left behind for you to solve. what will make a piece of art compelling for you will always be your immediate and personal reaction to it, after you find a piece of art compelling then you should try and learn the context in which it was made. Love your vids
We're lucky that in this case the artist told us this directly. For me, this is a good reason to try many kinds of art, for installation art helped me understand this concept on a new level, as it doesn't give you a choice but to feel how the experience itself is the purpose. Much of abstract and other non representative art defies analysis, forcing you to appreciate it in this way. Those who shun it are missing out on this and the insight it can bring to all forms of art. As for this analysis in particular, it sparked great conversation with my psychologist husband about over-analysis, how the desire to find specific meaning can detract from enjoying art, and our love of these works. And also how our college art teacher from 25 years ago would probably be delighted we'ee still doing this.
I don't have as much knowledge of art as I should nor do I admire the medium as much as I should. This is the first time I've heard of Magritte and I absolutely love, " Not to be Reproduced". Judging by the name maybe he meant to be original and not replicate your self off others? But at first glance I was thinking of the subconscious never looking eye-to-eye to the conscious version of yourself. I feel like they hate each other. "Lovers 1/2" are also beautiful and I agree with your take on them as well. Great vid! Grateful I got randomly got introduced to this.
I'm so glad you're diving into the incredible world of art history! Let me shamelessly plug my video on The Prohibited Reproduction: kzhead.info/sun/hrtwl5mPkamFiqM/bejne.html&pp=ygUUbm90IHRvIGJlIHJlcHJvZHVjZWQ%3D I hope you enjoy! :)
Often we hide our emotions and hide who we are. One cant really know a person to his/her core. Which is why you barely see their true face. Most of the times they are covered.
Wondering if you've ever considered a video on The Quebec Automatists like Jean-Paul Riopelle. The story around their work and role in Quebec history is intriguing.
For me, Lovers 2 is reminiscent of Lucretius's poem, "On the Nature of Things." In one section, he talks about how lovers attempt to possess each other during the act of lovemaking but ultimately fail because there will always be some sort of divide between any two human beings, no matter how passionate they may be about one another: So Love with fantoms cheats our longing eyes, Which hourly seeing, never satisfies.
This comment enhanced my appreciation of Magritte much better than the video itself. Thank you!
I like Lovers I and II. They make me think of my first love, how we lost are identities in that love, but also how I didn't even know who I was, and always felt like he couldn't open up to me and so in a way, I didn't know who he was either. Very personal for me, but that's what I see when I look at them.
Well done❤
Appreciate you!!!
Love your videos!
I really like his elective affinity paintings and how two seemingly unrelated subjects can become one and make sense once you think about the properties and purpose of the objects. His work La Corde Sensible is a great piece showing the relation of functions.
I like how in Magritte's paintings there's usually just one weird thing going on. Other surrealists paint entire dreamscapes (and that's great), but Magritte paints pretty straightforward scenes in which a single surreal theme has been placed. It gives that single theme a lot of power.
Another possible interpretation of the Lovers paintings that occurs to me is that Magritte is perhaps illustrating a hope that his mother still exists somewhere, and is safe and loved by someone who can fully understand her pain. But like a lot of elusive and allusive work, interpreting it kind of ruins the intent.
Thanks again!
I didn't know Magritte had a traumatic life
Your discourse at the end prompted me to think: "Maybe I should watch their videos muted on first viewing. What are my thoughts, observations, etc. Then, watch again to hear theirs."
Nice idea.
That's actually very interesting! I made fun of a comment about a week ago where someone said I "spoke too much" in my videos. I jokingly said that my next video would be muted. However, now I genuinely think it could be a worthwhile exercise to do!
i love this channel
Honey, as someone who’s lost a both of my parents…. I can say with certainty, EVERYTHING he painted, can be traced back to his mothers passing 💔
My first thought about Magritte's mother was "suicide? I don't think so". In the river, naked, nighty over her face, unaccounted for at home... mentally unwell (if true), alone, female, pretty vulnerable. Sounds like a probable murder to me, suicide as a cover story. I am sure it would have occurred to Magritte too, even back in those days. If only for insurance money which was a common crime in early 1900s. Anyways.... back to the video.....
It would be very difficult to subdue an unwilling victim and drown them without visible marks of foul play. I believe that if these were found, a suicide conclusion wouldn't be as obvious. It's mentioned she did not bleed, at least. Many housewives, especially in older eras find themselves isolated and in an environment where mental unwellness grows. She was reported to have been shut inside the house for her own safety, hinting at that maybe she had attempted before/generally was dangerous to herself or others.
Damn wasn't expecting a incelish comment here
I'm not sure what's incellish about it? It seems like just garden variety stupid to me. Although now that you mention it, it could be a product of conspiracy theory culture.
Do a reverse chronological order. You would find how amazing they are.
If an artist is uncomfortable with having their artwork studied from a psychological perspective, then they should consider not being an artist. This is because all art comes from the subconscious. There is no way that somebody can hide what their artworks mean from a psychological analysis. In fact, every single painting, especially Rene Magritte's works, can be analyzed using a dream dictionary; just like dreams come from the mind, you can completely analyze art the same exact way, and completely know what their works are about, and even some hidden meanings the artist might be trying to suppress. For example, the colors grey and white when used together are often associated with 'loss or physical loss', meaning every time you see the colors in anybody's artworks, it means they were thinking about somebody that might've passed of died, or just might be absent in a way that it upsets the artist. As a cubist and expressionist, my works often are very bright and colorful, however when my two uncles died in 2021, I stopped using color for a time, and my works started to become what I call, 'The Gray Period" where I used a lot of toned-down colors, and most specifically, grey and white. I guess I just couldn't bear to paint bright colors in the middle of me experiencing tragedy. Rene used grey and white in many of his works, and every time you see those colors is a moment in time Rene was thinking about loss; it is impossible for him to hide his memories or subconscious from the viewer; and sure enough, in his works The Lovers, and even his work "The Rape", used the color grey somewhere in his works; he was more than likely thinking about his mother's death. However that color is constantly prevalent throughout his works, and so this means there really wasn't a moment he wasn't thinking about her death, unless there was a painting he made that doesn't have those colors. Even the FBI use their analysis and can spot trauma in a child's artwork, and have been doing this for years, so too can we as the viewer do for any artwork an artist make, regardless of whatever art genre they make; even Jackson Pollock's alcoholism can be found out, just by looking at his splatter paintings (when you're constantly drunk, it's very hard to make solid objects in art, thus his _world_ looks like his splatter paintings, and show up in his artwork). In fact, the use of dream dictionaries and color analysis are so effective, that you can even tell the dark hidden aspects, like one's sexual orientation, dark fantasies, trauma including sexual or physical trauma, even their gender can be found out simply by studying how bright an artwork's colors are (men tend to see colors not bright enough, and will make then richer and more vibrant, where women tend to see colors too bright, and will often try to 'air' them out or decrease the saturation) You should consider analyzing Rene's artworks using a dream dictionary; whatever object he paints in his artwork, look what the dictionary says, and the same meaning will more than likely apply to what Rene was feeling. Simply put the pieces together, analyze his life story, and see if it might correlate with a dream dictionaries definition, and be sure to look at more than one dream dictionary reading, as certain objects mean certain things for other people. As for whether we should study art from a psychological standpoint or not, beside the fact that this is impossible as nothing can be hidden from the subconscious, as an artist I personally believe that psychoanalysis of artworks is not only highly insightful both on a historical and clinical perspective, but deeply connects the viewer with the artist on a personal level. Many current artists that I studied using dream analysis and told them what their paintings mean relished the fact I was able to so accurately depict their works. Also, sorry for the wall text of info :)
just a thought, I didn't even know that painter before watching this video. but maybe "the menaced assassin" was in fact about the death of Magritte's mother - he views the murderer as himself, as he feels guilty because of her suicide.
id love to use this info for my classes. do you have the references you used in this video? particularly concerning how Magritte felt about psychoanalysis
As always, good work. The fatal flaw is always "to interpret" the dream. Read Hillman. Images are the key to understanding the psyche. Words get in the way.
Amazing video. I adore surrealism. I was thinking maybe for the second painting of the murder scene, it could symbolise how Magritte took blame for his mother’s s*icide, considering how similar the apparent murderer looks to the 3 possible interpretations of him and his brothers watching from the window? Or it could have something to do with the father perhaps. Just a thought. And the lovers 1 and 2, I took to mean more that their love is potentially really toxic and they’re both slowly killing each other but refuse to part? Maybe im just morbid lol. Also stoned heheh love ur vids man
Inspiration for the Mars Volta's album cover art? I see this and immediately thought of the cover for "Frances the Mute", which is a great album, and the cover art bears similar resemblance to the Magritte.
I studied Art History at Sixth Form, but I don't really remember Magritte being a part of that (even though his work is such a huge chunk of the Surrealist movement). As a result I didn't know about a large part of what you tell us here. And yes, psychoanalysis aside, the death of René's mother must have played a massive part on his future life and work as an adult. I'm pretty sure if we had been in the same situation, it would have with a lot of us as well. Whether we would have interpreted it in the same way is anyone's guess, but it really makes us feel for him, even though pity would probably have not been what he wanted or asked for. To me, these particular works also show a huge strength of character and that he wasn't scared to face his mother's death and the impact that had on him head on.
Both The Lovers 1 & 2, specifically the second, always reminded me of Cornelia Parker's The Distance. I haven't read that Parker took inspiration from The Lovers for her piece but i feel echos of The Lovers in her piece The Distance which colours my interpretation of both now because I can't unsee it. To me The Lovers doesn't feel like a story of "blind love" unless it's to say the lovers are blinded to whom their lover is and to who they themselves are represented by the cloths over their faces. This blindness/singularly focused vision in conjunction with love seems to echo into The Distance (It's a marble statue of a couple making out intensely but there's 1 mile of yarn/rope wound about the couple starting with binding their heads together also obscuring their faces and draping and wrapping around the two figures as if they're bound and gagged to each other, a mutually exclusive hostage situation). The Lovers seems much more gentle and casual especially with the context of the first one but I can't help to think that the distance between their eyes and the cloth covering their faces is too little and myopic to facilitate mature love that sees their lover as a whole and accepts them for who they are. Regardless of how close they get in their kiss, there will always be that small blind distance between them. Or I could just have been single and cynical for years now. WHO KNOWS lol
I wish i never read anything about Magritte. Sometimes information ruins the whole perception of art. That is why I love what people say about painting without any knowledge of artist’s life or potentially made up juicy stories. First time I saw Magritte’s paintings life in SFMOMA I was mesmerized by the sense of peace and calm from them (the latest ones not Renoir style or Fauve period). I just enjoyed looking at them without any psychoanalytical bs. I feel like the more I learn about artists the less naive joy I get from their art. Knowledge could be garbage. Thank you!
if magritte had lived in 2010 he would make fb updates like "worst day ever, heart broken, rip happiness" and when people would ask what was up in the comments hed be like "omg i dont wanna talk about it" x'D
the last painting is really beautiful if you follow the thread laid out in the video.
When we get an AI tool like midjourney for generating podcasts of dead famous people, I will ask for a conversation between Magrittle, Kafka and Camus discussing each other's work.
Honestly I would listen to this, even though I’m terrified of AI.
I wonder if on the final painting, of the lady in the white dress, the flowers are hydrangeas. Which are flowers who live longer when "drowned" in water, but will die when you leave them too long in it.
There was one more Magritte work that, I think, truly was inspired by the death of his mother. "The Invention of Life" Please check it out, its virtually his mother on the left and a figure covered by cloth on the right.
Honestly my favourite of his is the lovers 1. The way the characters are posing is so natural and free, the background is so familiar, I've seen this picture in albums and on Facebook, they're just two happy people posing for a nice photograph. I can swear i see a camera ready smile on them despite the face being covered. It's so... Happy. The only thing out of place is that cover, and whrn i write this i wonder if it's a metaphor for the passage of time, for the sadness of the human condition following us even in happiness, for the decay of memories... It's curious
Like i do think the covering itself is probably an image that's stuck in his mind due to his trauma, that it returns often because of said trauma, but i don't think it exclusively is about his mother. I think it's become a symbol for him in Its own right, that it grew to mean more than that specific event to him. It's an image that must have haunted him, and it evolved with him as he lived on, taking on new meanings. It also reminds me of the fabric they put over a prisoner's head for executions, and i don't know if it was a practice back in his time but it feels to me like it's a momento mori because of it. There's a Jewish tradition for men to wear a burial shirt for their wedding day, it's not super popular but it exists still, and it reminds me of both the lovers paintings. I like the first one better though, how naturalistic it is, how familiar the composition is. The second one feels like seconds before execution, it reminds me of a short animated film i watched, of a dystopian world getting rid of "imperfect" people, and the main characters growing old and thus being disposed of, no longer being perfect. Anyway yeah I'm rambling a little, but i like the joy in lovers 1 better, it's... Sweet.
When i was a kid, i was terrified of the artwork to an old John Lennon album called "Shaved Fish". It had an image of a woman with her head covered, crawling naked on all fours while a bullet comes at her from behind. There's something about the head being covered that's more scary than a frightened facial expression would be--the 'unknown' is always more terrifying, right? Plus i think there's an automatic claustrophobic effect to the suggestion of face-covering built into the human psyche, like we can feel the suffocation ourselves at the mere suggestion. I can't imagine how intense it would've been for Magritte.
Something I always remind myself when I or someone near me is caught in a spiral of verbalizing their thoughts on a work of art is this: if the idea, the emotion, the sentiment, could've been better portrayed through an essay, or an explanation, then it would've. But words fail us more often than not, especially when groping for the ineffable experiences. Art hits us emotionally and sensually before it does intellectually, and so our first impulse shouldn't be to reduce it to easily digestable sentences. To reject interpretation is to keep the art free.
'easily digestible sentences' - have you read T.J.Clark? Especially his book on Poussin.
@@stuartwray6175 I'll look into him, thanks for the rec
The Menaced Assassin is one of Magritte's least personal pictures. If you have seen European expressionist, or even popular films of the time, you'll recognize the bowler-hatted detectives and other elements of the design. The three viewers at the rear are audience members starring back at you, another viewer. Murder is entertainment.
'Murder is entertainment' very Alfred Hitchcock. You make an interesting point about cinema/popular culture. 'The Menaced Assassin' was based on a scene from Fantômas The murderous Corpse. The short dada film, Ghosts before Breakfast (1928) comes to mind, regarding bowler hats.
Thank you
Beautiful 😍 I don’t blame or hate him ⭐️
I keep hearing "My kid" and "My kid's mother" instead of Magritte
Huh, was he an influence on The Mars Volta’s Frances the Mute album artwork?
In the menaced assassin, it came to my mind the thought that the assasin and the watchers are all the same, meaning that he, along his brothers, were the culprit of their mother's own suicide. also the assasin may be only magritte, and the way that the assasin is listening to music, may signify that he is unaware of what he has done, while his brothers do nothing but see, making them accomplice of that crime the detectives may be his own guilt personified.
I don't try to understand this painter, I just know that his painting of people raining and the house with the amazing lighting coming from the window are my favorites, I never understood him psychologically, but this painter understood me too much 🍷🗿
This seems closer to the artist's intent, if I'm not mistaken.
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4:02 i feel like Magritte felt like someone had encouraged her in some way even if not because in trauma and grief its quite common to blame or be in denial so he felt like it had been a murder in some way even when he knew it was suicide and the way he painted him and his brothers watching might also be like he felt like he was a witness and that he had power to do something about it but never did, self blame and loathing is also quite common within trauma and about lovers 1 and 2, i think its more of a lovely representation that they dont care about the possibility of being suffocated and they dont care about eachothers looks and in lovers 1 they are simply standing next to eachother and i think that thats because of them not having a very strong bond yet and overtime that bleeds out with lovers 2 of them being more passionate and not embarrassed together or maybe them feeling a connection in how they're both insecure of their looks but around eachother they can feel more safe about sharing their fears to strengthen their bond in a bittersweet way, what i mean is that i think these paintings are instead of having anything to do with Magritte's trauma more like him showing that love can be blind and thats okay and i think its a lovely way of showing that true love may be scared or somewhat tragic but in a way it can also be the most considerate and gorgeous love to show to eachother. i honestly love the mystery behind surrealism at times, i love that even when explained by someone you can never truly be sure its the truth considering it was made to be that way so that it would let people theorize and be fascinated and question what there is to it, i think theres some sort of beauty to a mystery in art or any context.
This really Inspired me, thank you
I'm glad it did! Thank YOU!
What is the name of the music?
2nd painting: maybe it isn't doubt but guilt? Young children often think it is somehow their fault when a parent is ill or commits s*icide.
The lover's 1 & 2 make me think of how often in relationships, people dont really know the person they're dating. We put on masks all the time, but especially so when meeting a potential partner
👏🖤