Page 33 - Studio International - February 1969

captive (La belle captive), a marvellously apt René Magritte's work and thought could not 6
Gigantic days 1928
description, for no 'captive' could be more fail to emerge at the very antipodes of that zone oil on canvas 454 x 32 in.
desirable than she who strips naked in full of easy alternatives —and refusal of responsi- Private collection, Brussels
Photo: Paul Bijtebier, Brussels
mystery, fulfilling a process which in its final bility—which we recognize under the name of 7
stage is as hidden from the watching eye as is `chiaroscuro'. The task inevitably fell to him The rape 1934
oil on canvas 284 x 21 in.
the moment of the chrysalis's mutation. Mag- of separating the 'tenuous' from the 'dense', Coll: George Melly, London
ritte is the first artist to have reckoned his without which operation no transmutation is Photo: John Webb, London
vanishing point in relation to the humblest of possible. He must have had to call upon all 8
The palace of a courtesan 1927 or 1928
objects (in agreement with Dore Ashton's pre- his reserves of audaciousness to tackle the twin oil on canvas 28½ x 36 in.
cepts) and to have wanted to embrace every- problems of extracting the essential light from Private collection
Photo: Paul Bijtebier, Brussels
thing to be found on the other side. He has the shadow and, at the same time, the essential
9
thus placed himself in an ideal position to put shadow from the light (as in The empire of lights, The representation 1937
oil on canvas 18 x 164 in.
into play as a shuttle Constantin Brunner's 1952). The overthrow of accepted ideas and Coll: Sir Roland Penrose London
analogon between the 'relative reality' fur- conventions is so complete, the moment we feel Photo: John Webb, London
nished by the senses and the 'absolute reality' the heavenly bodies within our reach, that, as
sought by the mind's imagination. These two René Magritte has assured me, most of those
* Cf. W. Bernhard, The Philosophy of Spinoza and
alternating movements, designed to control who pass by quickly believe that they have Brunner, New York, 1934 (The Spinoza Institute),
and balance each other, seem to me to signalize seen the stars in the day-sky. and 'Constantin Brunner, philosophe hors les murs'
La condition humaine (Man's fate) in the most Magritte's whole approach culminates in what in Les Cahiers du Sud, 1964.
t Cf. 'A symposium on Pop Art' in Arts Magazine,
essential meaning of those words. Magritte has Apollinaire has called 'genuine common sense,
New York, April 1963 (vol. 37, no. 7), quoted by
himself used this title for one of his paintings, meaning the sense common to the greatest
Robert Benayoun as an epigraph to his essay 'Oil
and so reaffirmed their significance by the very poets'. i6 February 1964 rien n'arrive' in La Brèche, action surréaliste, no. 6,
fact of his choice. Translation © Simon Watson Taylor Paris 1963.