Rene Magritte

In high school, I took a ceramics class. For one of our projects, we had to re-create a famous painting on a plate that we'd made. The work I settled on was Hegel's Holiday, by Rene Magritte.

1958

Ever since I stumbled across this, I have really enjoyed looking at Magritte's work. I saw this post as an opportunity to see what his approach to drawing was, and maybe how he went from drawings to paintings and other mediums, because that is something I would like to explore myself. 

Rene Magritte was born in 1898, in Belgium. He was a surrealist artist, with many famous paintings, such as:

The Treachery of Images
1929

His work often features ordinary objects in unusual circumstances or context. Although he combated the connection, his work has been said to have great influence on pop artists, influencing many famous artists including Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns. His work gained a lot more recognition and popularity during the 1960's. 

I found a lot more drawings than I originally expected to, and I was really surprised at the detail present in them. 

The Thought Which Sees
1965

I found a lot of drawings by Magritte, and many were just as detailed as this one. I was so impressed by his talent, and I think I am beginning to realize the kinds of drawings I am drawn to. I was very drawn to this style of drawing, maybe even more than I was drawn to his paintings. I found myself looking at a single drawing for a long stretch of time, taking in all of the different textures and values, and finding it difficult to pin down exactly what Magritte was trying to show with each one. I would love to be able to incorporate some of this depth into my own drawings. Though I know the still-life scenes are helping me to develop my skills, I think that once I get some more practice I would really like to experiment with drawings like these.

Perspective
1963

References:

Magritte, Rene. The Collection. N.d. Photograph. MoMAWeb. 6 Oct 2013. <http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O:AD:E:3692&page_number=8&template_id=1&sort_order=1>.

"Rene Magritte." The Art Story. N.p.. Web. 5 Oct 2013. <http://www.theartstory.org/artist-magritte-rene.htm>.