![Collective Invention by René Magritte, 1934. Oil on canvas, 73.5 x 97.5 cm. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Collective Invention is a play on the idea of a mermaid. This mermaid has the lower-body of a woman and the upper-body of a fish. However useful legs may seem to the beached creature, it’s gazing, expressionless, as fish are prone to do, and lying on it’s side. You would think that a fish with legs would be using them, but clearly this creature is too foolish, or is possibly asphyxiating as its gills attempt to respirate in vain.
As opposed to the normal model of human-fish creatures, this one has gained the transportation and sex-organs that flummox the sea-faring men whom they tempt. What the creature lacks is the personality, and inner/outer beauty of the traditional sea-temptress. One mysognist, who clearly didn’t think it through, called this “a practical man’s mermaid”.1
Michael O’Toole, “Thinking With Your On Eyes: Magritte and the Logical Metafunction” (accessed 18 October 2011) [Link to PDF]. ↩](http://www.tumblr.com/photo/1280/surrealism/11674493052/1/tumblr_lt9oddMIT71qzse0l)
Collective Invention by René Magritte, 1934. Oil on canvas, 73.5 x 97.5 cm. Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany.
Collective Invention is a play on the idea of a mermaid. This mermaid has the lower-body of a woman and the upper-body of a fish. However useful legs may seem to the beached creature, it’s gazing, expressionless, as fish are prone to do, and lying on it’s side. You would think that a fish with legs would be using them, but clearly this creature is too foolish, or is possibly asphyxiating as its gills attempt to respirate in vain.
As opposed to the normal model of human-fish creatures, this one has gained the transportation and sex-organs that flummox the sea-faring men whom they tempt. What the creature lacks is the personality, and inner/outer beauty of the traditional sea-temptress. One mysognist, who clearly didn’t think it through, called this “a practical man’s mermaid”.1
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Michael O’Toole, “Thinking With Your On Eyes: Magritte and the Logical Metafunction” (accessed 18 October 2011) [Link to PDF]. ↩
