Rene Magritte and Norman Rockwell

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• Rene Magritte and Norman Rockwell

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Rene Magritte (1898-1967)

• It is a union that suggests the essential
  mystery of the world. Art for me is not an end in
  itself, but a means of evoking that mystery.
  René Magritte on putting seemingly unrelated
  objects together in juxtaposition

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Rene Magritte, Belgium surrealist

• Magritte's work
• frequently displays a
• collection of ordinary
• objects in an unusual
• context, giving new
• meanings to familiar
• things.

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Rene Magritte, Belgium artist

• The use of objects as other than what they seem
  is typified in his painting. The Treachery of
  Images (La trahison des images), which shows a
  pipe that looks as though it is a model for a
  tobacco store advertisement.

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Rene Magritte

• Magritte painted below the pipe "Ceci n'est pas
  une pipe" ("This is not a pipe"), which seems a
  contradiction, but is actually true the painting
  is not a pipe, it is an image of a pipe.
• One of various splashes appearing in the title
  screen of the video game Minecraft reads "Ceci
  n'est pas une title screen!".

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Rene Magritte Witty

• Magritte used the same
• approach in a painting
• of an apple he painted
• the fruit and then used
• an internal caption or
• framing device to deny
• that the item was an
• apple.

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Rene Magritte Surrealism

• His work challenges observers' preconditioned
  perceptions of reality.

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Rene Magritte

• One night, I woke up in a room
• in which a cage with a bird sleeping
• in it had been placed. A magnificent
• error caused me to see an egg in the
• cage, instead of the vanished bird. I
• then grasped a new and astonishing
• poetic secret, for the shock which I
• experienced had been provoked
• precisely by the affinity of two objects
• the cage and the egg -- to each other,
• whereas previously this shock had been
• caused by my bringing together two objects
• that were unrelated.

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Rene Magritte

• Magritte is best known for his
• realistic depictions of ordinary
• things made surreal by context
• or their relationship to each
• other.
• The Portrait
• This painting depicts an almost photo-realistic
  table setting with a slice of ham in the center.
  The scene is made surreal by the presence of an
  eye staring back at the viewer from the center of
  the ham.

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Norman Rockwell (1894 -1978)

• His works enjoy a broad
• popular appeal in the
• United States for their
• reflection of American
• culture. Rockwell is most
• famous for the cover
• illustrations of everyday life
• scenarios he created for
• The Saturday Evening Post.
• The Clock Mender
• (was on the cover of the Post)

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Norman Rockwell, American painter

• For "vivid and affectionate portraits of our
  country," Rockwell received the Presidential
  Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's
  highest civilian honor, in 1977.

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Norman Rockwell

• Norman Rockwell was a prolific artist, producing
  over 4,000 original works in his lifetime.
• Boy and Girl Gazing at the Moon

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Norman Rockwell

• This painting was
• on the
• cover of Popular
• Science magazine in
• 1920.

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Norman Rockwells later years

• He began receiving more
• attention as a painter
• when he chose more
• serious subjects
• such as racism. One
• example of
• this more serious work is The Problem We All Live
  With, which dealt with the issue of school
• racial integration. The painting depicts a young
  girl, Ruby Bridges, flanked by white federal
  marshals, walking to school past a wall
• defaced by racist graffiti.