Photo: Helen Oppenheim
Went to the MoMA Museum Press Preview of Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926 – 1938, which explores the artist’s extraordinary breakthrough surrealist years with its pivotal works from the 1920s and 1930s. René Magritte was born in Belgium and spent some years in Paris when surrealism was in its heyday.
“Like all the artists and poets associated with the Surrealist movement, Magritte sought to overthrow what he saw as the oppressive rationalism of bourgeois society.” Often violent, usually disturbing, his work is filled with discontinuities. Take “The Rape” (1934) seen here, Magritte proposed a startlingly direct visual affinity between a woman’s face and her body; in his words, “the breasts are the eyes, the nose is a navel and the vagina replaces the mouth.”
This exhibition, the first-ever concentrated presentation of Magritte’s early Surrealist works, is a must-see. So inspirational. Magritte certainly inspired me over the years. See the Sassoon 1980 HighHair campaign and the La Coupe 1993 Magrittes, both on the HairThen Menu. For more on the Magrittes, which have so influenced so many with so much, go to Museums, MoMA, on www.helenoppenheim.com (coming soon 25 photos to stir the mind – stay tuned … )
René Magritte – La condition humaine/The human condition, 1933 … Photo: Helen Oppenheim
Yes, soo very interesting, thanks Sherri, and wait until you see my other 25 Magritte photos – when my Webmaster makes it possible for me to add them – all ready to go. Sigh. Sassoon albums not opening (another sigh) – waiting to fix that. Meanwhile, the La Coupe 1993 Magrittes worth a look, although not many of those are in this exhibition.
Soo very interesting.