Rene Magritte
René Magritte (1898 - 1967) was a Belgian artist best known for his influential work in Surrealism. Magritte often painted ordinary objects in an unusual context and in effect gave...
René Magritte (1898 - 1967) was a Belgian artist best known for his influential work in Surrealism. Magritte often painted ordinary objects in an unusual context and in effect gave new meaning to familiar things. The illusionistic images Magritte created challenged viewers’ preconceptions of reality in a witty way unseen before. His earliest work consisted of Impressionistic oil paintings, however after studying at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, he produced work inspired by Futurism and Cubism. Magritte focused on clearly depicting his subjects, in an illustrative style that intentionally avoided the stylistic distractions of modern painting. He also focused on repetition in his individual works, and in copying works, he had already made. This was perhaps influenced by his experience working as a commercial artist. Magritte’s work currently resides in museums and galleries worldwide, such as at the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Musée Magritte Museum in Brussels, and the Tate Gallery in London.