Page 30 - Studio International - March 1967

A conversation with René Magritte

'I am repatriated by a moment of panic. These are the privileged moments that transcend mediocrity.
But for that there doesn't have to be art-it can happen at any moment.'

Suzi Gablik

The monologic tract which follows is the synthesis of several
conversations held during the week of July 27-August 3, 1966,
with René Magritte, when I was visiting him in Brussels. An
ambassador had provoked him by interpreting in symbolic terms
one of his paintings entitled Les travaux d'Alexandre, in
which one sees the stump of a tree that has been chopped down,
with the axe imprisoned beneath one of its roots which has subse-
quently grown over it. The gentleman in question construed this
as an image pertinent to the political and economic situation of
Israel today, in that it could be seen as illustrating an idea of the
triumph of the victim over the persecutor, or even the victory of
good over evil. Lending gratuitous interpretations or searching
out meanings to his work has always made Magritte cranky.-
SUZI GABLIK

Symbols are my bite noire. They are supposed to represent
reality, but in truth they don't represent anything. If one
looks at a thing with the intention of trying to discover
René Magritte what it means, one ends up no longer seeing the thing
Photographed in his kitchen itself, but thinking of the question that has been raised.
by
Suzi Gablik The mind sees in two different senses : (1) sees, as with
the eyes, and (2) sees a question (no eyes).
Below The idea of solving a 'problem' is also distasteful, like
Les travaux d'Alexandre 1963
Pencil drawing doing crossword puzzles. It isn't necessary to think about
10 1/4 x 13 1/2 in. solving problems. Where is the mind then, if it isn't at
work solving problems? Impossible to know-this is
precisely the problem-how not to pose one, in order that the
mind need not apply itself to finding the solution. The
mind does not understand its own reason for being, and
without understanding its raison d'être (or why it knows
what it knows), the problems it poses have no raison
d'être either. But we know that we do not understand the
raison d'être of the mind. It performs many functions,
serves many purposes, but this is not a raison d'être.
Thought which is alive does not become attached to
many things. Only one thing interests it really, and that
is the fact that it lacks any raison d' être. That is its mystery.
That is the fact of least indifference and of most concern
to it. But in order for this mystery to really be put into
question, the means for doing so must be found. The
mystery of the mind is put into question by my painting
L' aimable vérité. There is no conceivable raison d'être for
this painting. The work of most artists is conceived under
the illusion that it needs to be done- that the world would
be somehow endangered if it weren't, and that it is there-
fore necessary to the world. (Unless of course it is just
done to make money.) It would be all the same to me if
my paintings were destroyed. Life continues. The Pop
artists wish to be contemporary, very much a part of
their time, influenced by advertisements for coca cola.