The Museum of Modern Art is always an interesting place to visit. Although, I did not have the opportunity to see the “Soundings: A contemporary Score,” exhibit, I did have the chance to see the work of René Magritte. Simply put, his work was very distinctive and unique and yet, at times seemingly familiar. This comes at no surprise especially since the description of his work, which was on the wall outside of the room, mentions that his technique is to “defamilarize the familiar.” Besides this technique, his work has more to it than we see on the surface.
Let’s start with his work titled, Le Faux Miroir. What we see is an eye with clouds in it. What we can easily depict is that the person is looking at the sky and sees clouds. However, it could also be you looking at someone’s eye through a window and he’s looking at you. Although, at first glance it may look like a mirror reflection of an eye. An interesting detail to note is that the eye has no eyelashes. Even though this painting is nothing but an eye, looking at it I sense that the owner of this eye is deep in thought. To me this would also make sense because people, many times, are deep in thought when they look out of windows. Although there is no evidence to prove anything except it is an eye, it is much more than an eye to me.
Then there is the work titled, The Interpretations of Dreams. This was very familiar because it was on the cover of Ways of Seeing. My favorite thing about this work is that I have the opportunity of seeing it in real life after seeing it on the cover of a book. There always that feeling of accomplishment when you see a real work. This work shows the difference between words and pictures. It’s hard to understand and I have little idea of what it should mean. It’s mysterious to me and I actually like that about it. It has the word “door” under a picture of a horse’s head. There is a clock above the word “wind” and so on. The words and pictures do not seem to match. It enhances the idea that things aren’t always what they seem.
Another notable painting to me is one titled, Not to be Reproduced. This painting shows a man and book in front of a mirror. The oddest thing is, the back of the man’s head shows up in the mirror but the book is correctly flipped. It took me a while just to realize the book was correctly flipped because the attention is on the person. It makes you wonder why Magritte decided to do that. According to the description the museum gave, it has a connection with Poe. Regardless, I think the title fits because perhaps the face cannot be reproduced.
The paintings in the whole exhibit showed a deep connection with each other. I noticed recurring ideas and pictures, such as the sky, a tuba, the human body, and mirrors. The idea behind Magritte’s work is perception. The things we see are not always what they seem. He makes even the most familiar things foreign and distorted, yet there is no doubt that they are also noticeable.
And here’s a rose for all of you.
