Art Review - Traditional Artist

Artist: Rene Magritte

Title of Artwork: The Lovers II, oil on canvas
Date of Artwork: 1928

Short Bio:
Rene Magritte (1898 - 1967) was a Belgian surrealist painter. He studied his art at the Royal Academy of Arts in Brussels which is also where he had his first exhibit in 1927. He was most known for his extraordinary juxtaposition in his art.

Description (The Facts): Objects - figures of a man and a woman and a straight wall, value of shades with only three main colors - red, black, and grey, textures from the smooth wall in the background to the grey cloth on the heads.

Analysis (The Design): Focal point are the man and the woman, light and dark colors with the red in the shirt and the wall creating a sense of balance and rhythm along with the framing from the ceiling and the wall.

Interpretation (The Meaning): The painting depicts a man and a woman trying to kiss each other through shrouded cloth on their heads which hide their identity. The figures with shrouded heads are depicted like several of his other works of art. These figures could be from the dark morbid side of Rene's mind, such as the suffering and suffocation, or they could mean a more lighter take such as from a dark hero he had watched in films as a child who wore a cloth over his head.

Judgement: When I seen this picture, I first thought of the phrase "true rhetoric" to describe this work of art. I see it as a display of love that comes from the heart and soul and is not based on an outwardly appearance.


Part 3 (Compare and contrast): Both artists were born in Europe, Brussels and Austria. Both artists admired and were influenced early in their careers by works from Max Ernst, Ernst Fuchs and other surrealists. Both artists incorporated their sense of realism into surrealist works of art to suggest a point, inspiration, or symbolism. Both artists display a sense of irrationalism and juxtapostion in their reasoning and inspirations for their work. These works of art present another world or life that comes from their inner imaginations of their minds and logic.