The Treachery of Images - Essay Example

THE TREASON OF IMAGES (RENE MAGRITTE). With the help of the picture The Treachery of Images Magritte tried to make the viewer question their reality. This painting belongs to a series of word-image paintings in which Rene Magritte combined images and text. He was against any attempts at interpretation or searching symbols in his pictures, insisting on the fact that the only thing to do with the pictures - is seeing them. The painting The Treason of Images represents a smoking pipe, under which there are a handwritten words "this is not a pipe", the inscription seems contradictory, but in fact is true.

We can observe a pipe on the painting however, this is not the pipe itself but the picture of a pipe. Magritte said: “The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe", I'd have been lying! ". This masterpiece of Surrealism creates a paradox out of the conventional notion that objects correspond to words and images. The important distinction between them, which is present in the Magritte’s works, is follows: words reference the world and images represent the world.

His ideas about real and unreal differ from the classical concepts. Rene Magritte argued that: "Sometimes the image of the object takes the place of its name. The word can take place of the object in the reality. From the mismatch the artist came to the denial. By writing "This is not a pipe" he brings havoc to all the traditional relationship between word and image.REPRESENTATIONAL. ABSTRACT. NON-OBJECTIVE. The word "representational," when it’s used as a determination for a work of art, means that the painting depicts something taken from a real world which most spectators can easily recognize.

Representation can be regarded as a smooth transition between artist’s thoughts and the real embodiment of a piece of art, whereas the understanding of representation by audience may not coincide with the initial artist’s idea. At the same time the artist tries to convey the idea so that it could be understood by the audience, so, representational pieces of art requires one’s efforts to understand it since it is initially presupposes to contain some particular sense. This type of art is clearly seen on the paintings Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife by Van Eyck and The Rocky Mountains by Bierstadt.

Abstract art in its turn, tends to "harmonization", to creation of a combination of certain colors and geometric shapes in order to cause a variety of contemplative associations. Abstract aims creating an extremely saturated painting with quite an ambiguous meaning conveyed by its figures. Sometimes a painter may intentionally create a solid image which looks like two or more different objects not related to each other. One of the most famous pictures that reveal the essence of abstract art are the Black Lines by Kandinsky and the Black Square by Malevich.

Non-objective is a purely private type of art. Unlike the representational art this one doesn't contain any recognizable things. The they just painted something without thinking about the person who will see it, and didn't take into account that person who will look at it. One may believe that artist himself never wished his creation to make any particular sense. All we can see is a senseless combination of colors. But is it really so? The viewer is opt finding his own sense no matter what was initially mean by the author.

Are they really creating a piece of art or just making whatever painting the work will result into, just to make commercial success or do they really throw out their own inner world? Such works as Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Picasso and The Starry Night by Van Gogh depict the author’s perception.Each art tendency is worth of being paid attention since it requires the viewer taking efforts to understand its sense, this way making contribution into development of one’s artistic background.

Works citedWollheim Richard. Art and its Objects: An introduction to aesthetics. New York: Harper & Row, 1968.