Rene Magritte

In the book “Contemporary Literature” there is a section called “Visible Poetry: Metaphor and Metonymy in the Paintings of Rene Magritte”. This might seem unusual considering that this is a book of literature, and Rene Magritte is a painter. But as the title suggests, the author of this book claims that Magritte uses literary devices in his painting. The author quotes Magritte in saying that “the function of painting is to make poetry visible” this quote explains Magritte’s work. He is a surrealist in his ideas, but his actual painting is very realistic. Magritte paints very normal, commonplace objects, but he paints them in a way to reveal the irony within them. He paints things that do not seem so completely different to show their actual similarities and connections. Magritte also paints things that seem to go together but leaves out an important part that the viewer must then fill in with their mind. For example, the author of the book quotes Magritte in discussing a dream that he had where he saw a cage with an egg in it. Magritte describes how he immediately knew that the image was missing something- the bird. Magritte also uses a lot of irony in his art. One of his most famous pieces of art is the painting of an extremely simple, realistic looking pipe. Underneath the painting of the pipe Magritte has written “C’est ne pas une pipe.” or, “This is not a pipe.” At first glance this may seem to be a startling contradiction, but actually Magritte is right. The painting is not a pipe. It is oil paint on canvas in a certain shape that we have come to recognize as a pipe, but it is not physically the same thing. In this painting Magritte paints something very realistic looking, but her forces the viewer to think surrealistically and accept that not everything that they see is the absolute truth. In another of Magritte’s most famous pieces, Time Transfixed he shows how two things that seem to have no relation can go very well together. The piece features a small train engine coming out of an empty fireplace. The smoke from the train is being drawn up the chimney, and at first clance the fireplace closely resembles a large tunnel that the train is simply in the process of driving out of. The author of the book discusses how the similarities in the two objects in this painting are very visual, but without the painting to explain it would be very difficult for most people to be able to discuss the similarities between a fireplace and a train. The author also discusses how some of the similarities between the objects in Magritte’s paintings are very logical. In Hegel’s Holiday Magritte shows a glass of water balanced on top of an umbrella. The similarities would be that both of the objects, although very different in their basic nature, are objects invented by humans to control water. Magritte’s incredible ability to paint thoughts is both beautiful and thought provoking. He manages to see the metaphors and irony in everyday life, and then paint them so that they become more evident to the rest of us. The author claims that because Magritte made such significant observations about the similarities of art and literature, his work is still very important and always will be. He showed us a new way of examining our lives and the world around us. Works Cited Dubnick, Randa. "Visible Poetry: Metaphor and Metonymy in the Paintings of René Magritte." Contemporary Literature 21.3 (1980): 407-419. Print.