When is a kiss not exactly a kiss

a landscape more than just a landscape or a portrait something well surreal

in the world of Belgian painter Rene magrete nothing is what it seems a

Magritte is all about making pictures that make you think about pictures he’s the artist who looks
at ordinary objects but in these extraordinary ways

like a fireplace with a locomotive dashing out under full steam or this portrait of a man made of a
birdcage this picture epitomizes sort of the way magrete creates very clear pictures and the longer
you look the more you realize that their meaning is absolutely unclear

and Umland is the curator of the mystery of the ordinary an exhibition at the Museum of Modern
art in New York that focuses on the evolution of magritte's work from 1926 to 1938 it's a time
when he makes quantitatively and conceptually more works in more modes more varieties than
he ever had before it is this period when magrete becomes magrete

Rene magrete was born in lucene a small town in Belgium in 1898 not much is known about his
childhood his father was a textile merchant and when magrete was 13 his mother committed
suicide I think what was probably even more impactful on him than the event of the death itself is
that he would remain when he was a young boy locked in a room with this depressed woman
honestly if you wish to read back into the works look at the type of spaces magrete is depicting
and think about how claustrophobic they are

in 1927 magrete joined Andre britam Salvador Dali and other artists in Paris they became known
as the surrealists creating unexpected often dreamlike imagery you both have an image of self
image of magrete practicing his craft at the same time as you have an image of his conceptual
process because where you look you realize of course he's staring at an egg

right but what is he painting -a bird or that he's painting a bird

challenging the viewer's perception of reality would become magritte's hallmark he was something
of a paradox while his works defied convention there was nothing of the artistic bohemian about
him he often painted in a suit and was married to the same woman Georgette for 45 years

magrete lived a secluded life and died in 1967 but his whimsical playful mind-bending images had
already been embraced by popular culture

his Apple was the inspiration for The Beatles Apple record logo and rock album covers mimicked
his designs and how about this eye, look familiar? and someone asked him what he thought about
CBS appropriating his painting the false mirror that I filled with Sky the famous eye was based on
his paint on his painting and he sort of felt indifferent about it because what CBS ended up with
was just a symbol on a background that was aiming to sell something or brand something whereas
his painting had no purpose other than poetry

billionaire and avid collector Wilbur Ross understands that poetry he owns 25 magretes even
Andy Warhol hadn't magrete and I think it can argue that pop art couldn't have a curd without in
magrete prima great who would ever have painted a Campbell soup can is it fair to say you are the
world's largest private collector of magrete
oh I don't know probably the most active one right now right is just when you get obsessed you
get obsessed

two of Ross's paintings are on loan to the exhibition which is the first solo magrete show in New
York City in more than 20 years what do you want people to feel and be left with after the show I'd
like them to understand what a great modern artist Magreet is

is always saying a picture is just a picture and image is not the same as the thing itself

in other words look and think because in the world of Rene magrete everything is open to
interpretation