Rene Magritte_ Matt D

“Life Obliges me to do something, so I paint”

Born in Lessines, Belgium in 1898 on November 21st

1910 began to take art classes 1912 his mother kills herself in

the Sambre river Quits high school in 1916 and

attends art school in Brussels 1920 he exhibits his first paintings

1922 marries Georgette Berger and she becomes his model and his main inspiration for painting

1926 he decides to devote all of his time to painting and gets a contract form Brussels

Becomes known as the godfather of Surrealism

Creates hundreds of paintingsDies in 1967 of pancreatic cancer (68

years)

Mother dies when Magritte is 14 years old by throwing herself into a river

Some of his earliest works involve paintings of the Sambre river

Death and decay such as pictures of coffins were also subject matter

His wife Georgette inspired him

Surrealism movement began in 1927 Surrealism means the artists express

unconscious thoughts and feelings in their work

Style: Magritte uses Surrealism in most of his paintings.

Paints mysteriously so you cannot figure out what it is that he is painting.

He paints by expressing with unconscious thoughts and feelings

“To be a surrealist means barring form your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been”- Rene Magritte

Color: Magritte used cool and warm colors together to make it difficult to decide whether or not the painting is happy or frightening.

If the painting is expressing a dark mood he painted the negative space in his paintings a dark color

Composition: He draws with extremely realistic detail

Takes ordinary objects and puts them in extraordinary places

Ignores Gravity and the normal scale of objects

Mood and Tone: Calm but somberStrange combination of subjects

makes the mood serious and darkCold and detached Mystery of meaning causes

confusion and unsettled feelings

I think that Rene Magritte’s style of art is very interesting and changed my mind of what art really is.

I appreciate his art but I do not think his art would be welcome in my home because most of it is very bizarre

I like my artist because his art is powerful in a mysterious and dark kind of way

It makes me feel perplexed but that was his intention so i can’t complain that his art doesn’t make any sense.