Magritte

When I went to Brussels during spring break last April, we (me along with three others in our 4-member crew) made it our priority to go to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Brussels. And, so, why was this a priority of ours? It was actually pretty ironic that the four of us that were traveling together all have a strong interest in art. Usually, there are a few that can't stand art and hate art museums. We weren't of that kind. 

And when we got there, the classic art was beautiful, of course, but I fell back in love with René Magritte! To be completely honest, I would be the last person in my high school honors fine arts class to say "I love surrealism" because I didn't and it made my fine arts final a bitch to study for.

But, I think that's when I realized how different it is to learn about a piece of art in a classroom setting and when you actually see an entire collection of them, divided into different viewing halls correlating to the artist's life in chronological order. It makes it less about analyzing and more about the excitement of viewing, of witnessing, or just of being captivated by the beauty of the art itself. 

Plus, what I loved most about Magritte were the unique and very out-of-the-blue titles he tied to each of his artwork. He always emphasized that his titles don't mean anything in particular and that people shouldn't put all their effort into analyzing these titles. Or any titles in life, in fact. He was actually a pretty deep person. Very philosophical. 

"Empire of Lights"

"An object is not so attached to its name that we cannot find another one that would suit it better."

"The lovers"

"The Portrait"

"Hegel's Holiday"

"Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see, but it is impossible. Humans hide their secrets too well...."

"The Happy Doner"