The treachery of images by René Magritte, 1928-1929

      The work I am going to analyse are part of a series called The treachery of images, by Belgain painter René Magritte. The piece above these lines is the most famous one painted by Magritte on this subject. It is an oil on canvas which mesures 63 by 93 cm. We can observe a pipe depicted in a very realistic way. The technique is exquisite thanks to the mastery of Magritte in the handle of the light, colour and texture. As viewers, we are tempted to grab the object, that is floating weightlessly in the space. However, something prevents us from doing it: beneath the pipe, the inscription "Ceci n'est pas une pipe", written in a naive calligraphy, breaks the spell.

     What does it mean? Why do we feel so unsettled in front of such a quotidian object? As a warming, the sentence draw our attention to the fact thar art is not reality, no matter how convincing the depiction would be. This is not a pipe but the representation of a pipe. But we can go even further considering the next artwork:

      This work is titled Ceci n'est pas une pipe (Les Deux Mystères). It is an etching made in 1966 which measures 17.8 by 12.7 cm. An easel stands over a wooden flooring holding up a canvas that resembles to The treachery of images. Above the scene a giant pipe that equals the size of the easel is floating. 

      We can now stablish a dialogue between images as the second work refers clearly to the first. After considering the former, the oberserver would be able to question the latter. Woult it be possible that the sentence "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" is not a sentence but the representation of a sentence? Or, as Foucault suggested, may the sentence be referred not to the image above but to itself? A sentence is not a pipe, indeed. And what about the giant pipe? Does it represent the Platonic form of the pipe? Is it the model of paradigms the represantion of a pipe is looking up to?

      This cascade of questions is the result of the surrealism as Magritte understood and developed it. The art doesn't represent reality. The artwork doesn't refer to an object beyond the frame. The images refers to themselves and starts a discussion between them. The conceptual surrealism has achived its goal: to make the thought visible.