"The Lovers" by Rene Magritte

"Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see" - Rene Magritte

Avant-garde movements had their huge acceleration especially with and after the 20th century. As an avant-garde understanding, Surrealism is one of the most debatable areas of art which gained a success in the 20th-century era. The basic definition of surrealism can be known as the reflection of the juxtaposition of the unconscious mind on medium. In that sense, the well-known artist Rene Magritte, from Belgium, brings another perspective on the development of surrealism by creating art with different materials and understandings. The reason which triggered me to say this relies on Rene Magritte's life. He was also known in different kinds of areas such as advertising and illustrating. Another fact which makes Magritte and therefore his artworks debatable is his choices in life, from living inside of the middle-class and anonymity. In general surrealist artists contains more popularity especially with the 20th century, Magritte's choice in living makes him more mysterious.

Magritte's famous artwork "The Lovers" (1928) is containing a melodramatic and thrilling approach inside. The approach is not solidly visible but it is possible to feel it. The artwork contains a three-dimensionality inside by the existence of two walls and a ceiling. It is possible to say that there is a perfectly-created color balance. The usage of colors orange, black, blue and white contains an importance on maintaining of the balance between colors. Woman's clothes' color is like a reflection of the right wall, however, there is no clue of the usage of black on man's clothes. The color of the wall in back and both woman's and man's coverings are the same. It may be a hint that both those people's backgrounds in their minds are the same. However, with a relation to the colors of the walls and their colors, it is possible to assume that both these people's experiences are different from each other. In that sense, it is a mystery that there is no evidence about man's clothes' color. Another fact which is coming from the artwork relies on that because of the details on the ceiling, people are inside of a room which can be a message given by Magritte that differences and common factors are located all together, therefore there is a balance between these two. It can be a reference to nature 's "imperfect", therefore, "perfect" balance.

In general, it is possible to give a summary with respect to Magritte's famous artwork that similar factors between people are important, it gains more importance when people synthesize them with their personal experiences which are different from each other. This brings the imperfect but perfect balance afterward.

More About Painting:
"The Lovers" by Rene Magritte, 1928
54 x 73.4 cm, oil on canvas, "Surrealism"
Paris