René Magritte was a Belgian Modernist and Surrealist painter who lived from 1898-1967. Widely known for his concealed/obstructed faces, a Freudian psychoanalysis done on Magritte’s artwork suggests that Magritte’s motifs of repetition were a sign of trauma from his early childhood. At age fourteen, Magritte witnessed his mother’s suicide. His mother’s body was retrieved from the water, where they found her nightgown wrapped around her face. Some suggest that witnessing his mother drowning inspired Rene to conceal his subject’s face throughout his paintings.
The MoMa displays the first of four variations of The Lovers that Magritte painted in 1928. In The Lovers, one can see two concealed faces attempting to embrace one another. The cloth wrapped around their faces obstructs a kiss between the two lovers, where one can feel and see the isolation and frustration behind the desires of two people. This piece reminds me of T.S. Eliot’s, “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” The ambiguity found in Magritte’s artwork help us to illustrate T.S. Eliot’s words. Like the choice of colors used in Magritte’s piece, The Lovers, the words in “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” sets a somber mood where one can feel the characters emptiness and insecurities. As we read, J. Alfred Prufrock struggles with continuous thoughts of “should I” and “what if’s,” making it almost impossible for him to involve himself in any intimate relationship with women. He fears that time and his appearance are growing thin, pulling him back from approaching and conversing with cultured, sophisticated women. The clothed faces on the two lovers can be easily compared to the mental struggles found in that of T.S. Eliot’s poem, that ultimately hold Prufrock back from acting on his initial intentions. The inability to fully “unmask” the desire and passion of the two lovers can also be interpreted as a struggle to show the true nature of oneself to their most intimate partner. Magritte’s The Lovers evokes frustrated desires which can be found throughout his works.
Surrealism is a very strong and important category in modernism. It stimulates one to think deeply even through its simplistic details. A fan of surrealism, and having done a lot of surreal art myself, I embrace the idea of creating art that allows different interpretations through minimalist techniques. I believe that there is a complex psychology that exists behind surrealist painters that allows them to create masterpieces derived from the “superior reality” of the subconscious mind. Rene Magritte has been an idol and inspiration throughout my artistic years where, I too, sketched and painted with blank faces. Like Rene, I feel that it is up to the viewer to form a face, choosing how the subject of the piece would look. When I stumbled upon Magritte’s, The Lovers, I was immediately drawn in. Surrealism explores beyond or beneath what is known. It evokes mystery which Magritte encouraged through his paintings. Rene Magritte’s artwork creates a paradox, paintings that are composed with clarity and simplicity that stimulate unsettling thoughts. While surreal paintings may seem to hide no mystery, they in fact, arouse bewilderment and ambiguity. Magritte’s The Lovers evokes “frustrated desires” which can be interpreted in various ways.
“My painting is visible images which conceal nothing, they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks himself this simple question, ‘What does it mean?’ It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.” – René Magritte
Sources:
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-magritte-rene.htm
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/rene-magritte-the-lovers-le-perreux-sur-marne-1928
https://www.renemagritte.org/the-lovers-2.jsp