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René François Ghislain Magritte ( November 21 , 1898 – August 15 , 1967 ) was a Belgian Surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and amusing images. LIFE Magritte was born in in Brussels for two years until 1918 . In 1922 he married Georgette Berger , whom he had met in 1913 .Meuris, 1991, p.216. '', 1964 .]] Magritte worked in a Wallpaper factory, and was a poster and advertisement designer until 1926 when a contract with Galerie la Centaure in Brussels made it possible for him to paint full-time. In 1926 , Magritte produced his first surreal painting, ''The Lost Jockey (Le jockey perdu)'', and held his first exhibition in Brussels in 1927 . Critics heaped abuse on the exhibition. Depressed by the failure, he moved to Paris where he became friends with André Breton , and became involved in the Surrealist group. When Galerie la Centaure closed and the contract income ended, he returned to Brussels and worked in advertising. Then, with his brother, he formed an agency, which earned him a living wage. During the of Belgium in World War II he remained in Brussels, which led to a break with Breton. At the time he renounced the violence and Pessimism of his earlier work, though he returned to the themes later. His work showed in the United States in New York in 1936 and again in that city in two retrospective exhibitions, one at the Museum Of Modern Art in 1965 , and the other at the Metropolitan Museum Of Art in 1992 . Magritte died of pancreatic Cancer on August 15 , 1967 and was interred in Schaarbeek Cemetery , Brussels. Popular interest in Magritte's work rose considerably in the 1960s, and his imagery has influenced Pop , Minimalist , and Conceptual Art .Calvocoressi, 1990, p. 26. In 2005 he came 9th in the Walloon version of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian); in the Flemish version he was 18th. PHILOSOPHICAL AND ARTISTIC GESTURES '', 1953 .]] A consummate technician, his work frequently displays a juxtaposition of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things. The representational use of objects as other than what they seem is typified in his painting, '' Michel Foucault discusses the painting and its Paradox .) Magritte pulled the same stunt in a painting of an apple: he painted the fruit realistically and then used an internal caption or framing device to deny that the item was an apple. In these ''Ceci n'est pas'' works, Magritte points out that no matter how closely, through realism-art, we come to depicting an item accurately, we never do catch the item itself, per se, as a Kant ian Noumenon , but capture only an image on the canvas. His art shows a more representational style of surrealism compared to the "automatic" style seen in works by artists like Joan Miró . In addition to fantastic elements, his work is often witty and amusing. He also created a number of surrealist versions of other famous paintings. René Magritte described his paintings by saying, My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, 'What does that mean?'. It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable. IN POPULAR CULTURE The 1960s brought a great increase in public awareness of Magritte's work. One of the means by which his imagery became familiar to a wider public was through reproduction on rock album covers; early examples include the 1969 album '' of UK folk-rock band Lindisfarne used Magritte's paintings on two solo albums in 1973 and 1979. Styx adapted Magritte's ''Carte Blanche'' for the cover of their 1977 album '' The Grand Illusion '', while the cover of Gary Numan 's 1979 album '' The Pleasure Principle '', like John Foxx 's 2001 '' The Pleasures Of Electricity '', was based on Magritte's painting ''Le Principe du Plaisir''. Rock band Jethro Tull mention Magritte in a 1976 lyric, and Paul Simon 's song "René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War" appears on the 1983 album '' Hearts And Bones ''. Paul McCartney , a life-long fan of Magritte, owns many of his paintings, and claims that a Magritte painting inspired him to use the name Apple for the Beatles ' media corporation. Magritte is also the subject and title of a John Cale song on Cale's 2003 album HoboSapiens . Numerous was inspired by Magritte's ''L'Empire des Lumieres''. Hanging above a fireplace on the set of the television show Good Eats is a painting of a turkey floating in a blue sky with a bowler hat floating above it—another homage to Magritte's ''The Son of Man'', which is also referenced in the Treehouse Of Horror IV episode of The Simpsons . Magritte's painting '' '' Rayman Raving Rabbids ''. The online game '' Kingdom Of Loathing '' refers to this painting, as well as to '' The Son Of Man ''.   |
Image:The Menaced Assassinjpg''The Menaced Assassin'',
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/1927" class="copylinks">1927 |
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Image:Magritte36jpg''Elective Affinities'',
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/1933" class="copylinks">1933 |
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Image:The Portraitjpg''
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/The_Portrait" class="copylinks">The Portrait '', 1935 |
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Image:On The Threshold Of Liberty 1937jpg''
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/On_the_Threshold_of_Liberty" class="copylinks">On The Threshold Of Liberty '', 1937 |
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Image:Portrait Of Edward Jamesjpg''La Reproduction Interdite'' (English: ''Not To Be Reproduced''),
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/1937" class="copylinks">1937 |
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Image:Time Transfixedjpg''Time Transfixed'',
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/1938" class="copylinks">1938 |
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Image:Mysteries Of The Horizonjpg''
| "http://wwwinformationdelightinfo/information/entry/The_Mysteries_of_the_Horizon" class="copylinks">The Mysteries Of The Horizon '', 1955 |
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