Essay on Rene Magritte: Illusions Masking Reality

René Magritte Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte was a master not only of the obvious, but of the obscure as well. In his artwork, Magritte toyed with everyday objects, human habits and emotions, placing them in foreign contexts and questioning their familiar meanings. He suggested new interpretations of old things in his deceivingly simple paintings, making the commonplace profound and the rational irrational. He painted his canvasses in the same manner as he lived his life -- in strange modesty and under constant analysis. Magritte was born in 1898 in the small town of Lessines, a cosmopolitan area of Belgium that was greatly influenced by the French.

Dada was an art movement described by Dada poet Tristan Tzara as “not the beginnings of art, but of disgust.” The movement came into existence through a small group of artists and poets in Zurich who eventually wrote a set of strategies and philosophies aiming to revolutionise visual art, performance and poetry, as well as revolutionary ideas about the politics and social values. Dada came into existence amid the first world war. For the artists the war was evidence that the break down of social structures, corrupt nationalist politics, and unquestioning conformity of culture and thought led to such violence. (Moma.org, n.d.)

Through this exhibition, the curators have managed to expertly communicate a few historical truths. Firstly, that American artists responded to war in creative ways; exemplified by the variety of works on display. Secondly, American artists had a position on the War. They were actual vocal members of society who

The topic of the unconscious mind is one that is very relevant to the surrealist movement. Arguably the most famous surrealist artist, Salvador Dali, was famous for his depictions of dreams and freudian theories. Rene Magritte, also a very famous surrealist artist, is also thought to be influenced by such theories, especially when it comes to the repression of childhood memories. Because of this, these two artists are perfect examples to question the extent of this psychological influence on their work. Was psychoanalysis the primary goal for both artists? In this report I will analyse three texts from reputable sources about both Dali and Magritte, and aim to use evidence from these texts to come to a conclusion about my

Surrealism is one of the recognizable art movements with influential impacts in contemporary art. Advocating an art of imagination, the artists explore the unconscious as a method to discover the possible vision. They focus on the power of endless imagination and trace back to the romantic emotions, explore anxieties and present the emotions visually. Besides, the Surrealistic artists believe everywhere, and daily life could be their inspiration. In the arts, the Surrealist ideas combine abstract imagination with new techniques to represent the unconscious. Surrealists devote to specializing in presenting a more profound reality revealed by the unconscious mind. The artists wish to create images that go beyond dreams to reach a more comprehensive

Dada emerged after World War I (Tate Museum n.d.). The anti-art movement was founded in Zurich, Switzerland where Dada was birthed for artistic and political purposes. Events at the cabaret proved pivotal in the founding of the art movement known as Dada. Questions about social structure, politics, values and culture were brought to light after the war (Gavroche 2017). Dada was an expression of the new perspective of the modern world. This essay will explore the effect that Dada had in Zürich, Switzerland after World War I and its significance in a time of healing and comprehending the damage the war had left. Firstly, the beginnings of Dada in Zurich will be investigated and how the movement came to be. Secondly, the importance of Dada during considerable changes in society will be discussed and how it gave way for people to question and challenge ideas. The influence of the founder of Dada, Hugo Ball will be discussed and how his inisitive had influence on later artistic movements. The legacy of Dada will be explored through an analysis of Dada pioneer, Marcel Duchamp and his readymades. And conclusively, the influence of Dada on 21st century art will be explored.

In 1916, artists such as Hugo Ball and his wife Emmy Hennings, along with other influential artists, provided performances and discussions of art in Zurich at the Cabaret Voltaire, named for the 18th century French philosopher. The performances were used for artistic and political purposes. During these performances, artists expressed their disgust with the War and what caused it. These artists and objectors, along with their radical ideas, became associated with the movement and label of Dadaist. The name “Dada” came about in an unconventional way. It is believed to have originated by selecting a word out of a French/German dictionary. “To Ball, it fit.’ Dada is ‘yes, yes’ in Rumanian, ‘rocking horse’ and ‘hobby horse’ in French,” he noted in his diary. “For Germans it is a sign of foolish naiveté, joy in procreation, and preoccupation with the baby carriage”(Smithsonian).

To appreciate Dada, one must first know the context of its time. To truly understand Dada, one must understand the deep pain of the artists, the ferocity of the disgust toward the bestiality of their supposedly modern world, and the deep longing for change at the hearts of its various contributors. During the onset of the first world war, many European artists were horrified at humanities bourgeois and violent nature, the nationalism that consumed its thoughts, and the authoritarianism that defined it. Early Dadaists were born out of

The movement spread and soon there were surrealist groups cropping up in the metro areas of the world. It was around this same time that Rene Magritte was shown a painting by Giorgio de Chirico and soon became member of the surrealist group. Today, the name Magritte has come to be synonymous with Surrealism. It may have been that Magritte felt attraction to the surrealist movement because of its ability to convey an idea with great eloquence as well as its focus on the deeply meaningful rather than the superficial. His statement about the works of Giorgio de Chirico supports this

Dada movement started in nineteen sixteen, by a poet and artist named Tristan Tzara and Hans Arp. As a response to the killing, propaganda and firstly the first world war. Individualist groups joint together by means of similar concepts, even though these groups did not share a universal style, but since they all rejected the idealism, stale artistic and intellectual conventions and modern society’s unchecked embrace of ‘rationalism’ and ‘progress’. Dada was

“The modernist’ admiration for primitivism led to Dada, the most unusual art movement of the twentieth century.” (Experience Humanities, pg 581) The idea of Dada is to show the problems in society but disrupting the system. This was in particularly done to show how WWI had devalued art. Dada artist did a lot to disrupt the system like “Hurl gobs of spit in the faces of the bourgeoisie. They staged exhibits in public lavatories, planned meetings in cemeteries, and arranged lectures where the speakers were drowned out by a bell” (Experience Humanities pg

Surrealism is defined as a 20th century art movement, which attempted to tap into the subconscious mind of the artist. This style of painting involved creating imagery and ideas that were seen to contradict each other. In a surrealistic work of art, the world of dream and the world of imagination are joined to the everyday reality. Therefore, it combines both a very rational, and irrational style. Surrealist Theory was based on a simplistic understanding of the writings of Sigmund Freud recreated for the use of poets and visual artists, the mind and human psychology became a source of inspiration. Like the underdeveloped photograph, the contents of the mind are latent, speaking in a secretly language that is wholly private and individual. Surrealism sought this secret language through the fixing of the dream images into works of art.

The surrealist art movement was sought out after World War I. The war consisted of seventy million fighters and over nine million casualties. There was a large generational gap between soldiers and those sent to fight. In the aftermath of World War I, a high rise of concern about human nature and future of civilization reached its peak. It caused a change in the western civilization way of thinking. Surrealism drew upon cubism and expressionism but emerged from the arts of Dadaism. The surrealists challenged and attacked traditional thinking, which allowed their artwork to make a large statement about humankind and status of conditions.

Surrealism, a cultural movement that unveiled and brought forth a new era of literature, writing, and art, changed the way individuals perceive and practice their subconsciousness and reality. In the artistic view of surrealism, artists would paint unreasoned, questionable, and dubious scenes with vivid precision, that aimed to combine dream and reality to an ultimate or decisive reality (Breton, 1924). A prominent Belgian surrealist artist during the 20th century, known as René Magritte, was known for his unique and astounding output of surrealism, and his critique and ideology of surrealist art differed from any other prominent surrealist artist. Throughout this passage, I will argue and determine how René Magritte critiques and assesses the surrealist vision and its fundamentals differently than other surrealist artists. To identify René Magritte’s unique surrealist output and critique, there would need to be a concise and succinct comparison of Magritte’s surrealist style compared to another prominent surrealist artist’s work, the artist chosen to be compared with Magritte will be Salvador Dalí. This prominent, Spanish surrealist artist, whose full surname was, Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquis of Dalí de Púbol, also had a unique critique and style of surrealist art during the twentieth century. A comparison of artwork between René Magritte and Salvador Dalí, will determine how René Magritte outputs the surrealist vision and its fundamentals

Not only anti-war and anti-art, Dada mirrored society in a more comprehensive level than just political extent but entailing cultural perspective (Harrison & Wood, 2003). Dada is considered as irrationalism to reject the traditional Bourgeois rationalism (Harrison & Wood, 2003). Hopkins, in his book “Dada and surrealism”, explained this characteristic in a more detail level: Dada threw doubt on how the conservative middle-class art was created and the constructive purposes it guaranteed, the elegant, rational ideas of church and flag overwhelmed the arts while countless human being out there were suffering from loss and horrified deaths (Hopkins, 2006). Dadaism assumed that bourgeois were the one contributed to the miserable so that their perspective had to