L’Homme au Chapeau Melon by René Magritte, 1964. (via livinglauren)

“The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.” Rene Magritte

Happy 112th Birthday, Rene Magritte & long live Surrealism.

Reblogged for the quote as much as the painting.

I started this blog a long time ago because of Magritte’s birthday. I really don’t post enough Magritte, but that’s because it’s so hard to figure out.

I have no idea what this painting is about. It is clearly an extension of the ideas portrayed in The Son of Man. About that painting Magritte said:

At least it hides the face partly. Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It’s something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.

Using that logic, however, the obscuring item could be anything. In fact, there might as well not be a face at all. Hell, let’s just put something in front of the entire painting.

It’s the slippery-slope that Magritte makes so much fun.

I know it’s a bit early for these things; but, in 2011, I resolve to post more Magritte. I have neglected him for far too long.