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Research Field: Art Paper
 
Paper Topic: Works of Rene Magritte
 
Requirements: Develop a paper on Rene Magritte using a minimum of 3 sources. 1.A monograph (book about a single author), 2. An article about the artist, 3. An art Encyclopedia. Refer at least once to each source to support your ideas. Write a 3 to 4 page paper answering the following: 1. Introduction, discussing the reasons for your selection, 2 Briefly (1-2) paragraphs) locate the artist historically and geographically. Do not attempt a lengthy biographical summary, 3 Discuss meaning in the artist work. what is he or she trying to communicate (generally or during specific period)? 4. Add two examples of the artists work and refer to them to support points.

Actual Paper: 
 
Introduction. 
 
Rene Magritte (1898-1967), the great Belgian painter, belongs to the generation of Surrealism espousers that strove for a more decent place to be enjoyed by the irrational approaches in art that emphasized (somewhat paradoxically, in light of its apparent sophistication) experiential learning over interpretational reasoning in art[2]. His contribution to the movement has been especially remarkable because he provided a consistent basis for his method, and attempted at reforming the public perception methodically rather than by leaving his individual ideas up for loose, second-hand interpretation. In the present study, we will focus on Magritte method and try to resolve the seemingly controversial coexistence of simple writing and highly intricate painting as allegedly stemming from the same approach. Much of the discussion will be based on Hammacher (1995). 

Discussion. 
 
It took a good chunk of Magritte's mature career to convey the appreciation of his vision and his method to the lay public aside from the specialized Surrealist circles. That his art was rich in content that paralleled the intellectual and philosophical trends of the time did not become readily apparent over night, and for all his claims to direct and straightforward ways of mapping the reality, Magritte does remain a difficult if somewhat peculiar author. What is the essence of his method, and would it at all be conceivable for the public to appreciate and accept (legitimize) his individual paintings without being privy to the more general context?
 
Magritte did not deny that the modern age with its ever growing reliance on technology and complex solutions, reasonably places a high value on rational approaches. However, he found it increasingly difficult to tolerate with the status as socially neutral or outcast that the irrational was vested with. One need be careful here, though, to allow for the specific meaning he attributed to the domains of reason and the irrational. In particular, it has been observed that the surprise as a measure of deviation between what the artist delivers and what the public had expected him to, has almost never gone in the same direction: in fact, Rene may have disappointed the public by delivering, or attributing to his message, exactly the opposite connotation. Audiences might seek a lot of subtle and highly intricate content to his art, while Magritte would keep on insisting he meant to be direct and denied any symbolism to his painting. That might appear paradoxical, but only according to our heuristic convention of identifying the difficulty of direct observation with the complexity of indirect interpretation. Magritte spoke out against the rational method which denies the possibility of direct seeing or observing without some iterative or azimuthal arrival at a proxy for the truth being conveyed or modeled. Interpretation replacing direct experience of observing, according to him, largely builds on our legacy of using words, metaphors, and otherwise indices which at times begin to claim a value (meaning) of their own. We think, associate, and judge by looking through the verbal prism. However, it is exactly the word apparatus that instills the most vagueness, bifurcation, and confusion to the main content. 
 
He expresses his distrust of interpretation on all levels, including the metaphoric apparatus largely employed in science, the thought processes, and in particular the method of psychoanalysis which delves too deeply in meaningless interpretation (involving non-existent links between phenomena, as well as between symbols/symptoms and the underlying causes). The weakest form of criticism that could apply along these lines is the maintained assertion that the multitude of such possible linkages is so prohibitively large or uncertain that it is hardly possible to locate unique mappings. Such a methodological stance provides basis enough to justify his modus operandi in painting and writing. It also sheds light on the pseudo simplicity as conventionally attributed to his writing on the one hand, and the eerie image to his art on the other. In no manner can an expert well familiar with a tool help but see its drawbacks: the higher the expertise, the better the awareness and skepticism as to the instrument's omnipotence. Accordingly, Magritte might be well trained in certain methods he later consciously chose not to overuse, short of refusing to employ them again. His writing was thus refined to the maximum of the dangerous cost attached to tools like metaphors, symbols and indices. His painting, on the other hand, is almost by definition unburdened with the inherently verbal ambiguities. However, it is not unreasonable to acknowledge that direct vision might be far more difficult and in fact only affordable for the more trained minds capable of integrating, synthesizing, and observing a lot of domains at the same time. The continuous reality requires a high velocity of observing (seeing it all), which consequently leaves the only option for the rest of the audience: discretize (analyze) the whole and study its more observable separate pieces that have lost much of the original content as a result. 
 
Magritte did not need to refer to the world of illusions, dreams, and hallucinations, which may have spared him health mental and physical, unlike many abstractionist authors deriving much of their inspirations and experiential knowledge from chemical substances. For him, the real world afforded a rich source of content and inspiration. Pre-consciousness-a state before and during waking up-did, however, play an important role in his (as well as Dali's) work. One might guess that is in no manner contradictory to but rather perfectly consistent with his general approach: in the sleepy state, the mind is capable of boosting the velocity and integrating capacity to see the whole. Mere exposure to what we are seeing everyday around does not amount to observing. The artist that really observes will try to convey a condensed vision of the aspects he deems as more pertinent.
 
One other determinant of the inherent complexity of his work (so seemingly contrasting with the pseudo simplicity of his writing) pertains to the fact that, although he used simple and ordinary objects (elements), he combined them into rather thought provocative messages. There evidently was a huge gap between his understanding of his own context and ability to appreciate the ad hoc ideas, and those of the public at large. Accordingly, he spent much of his mature career conveying the general method, which was a more meaningful way of shortening the 'incubation period' than elaborating individual concepts.
 
Applications.
 
A Little of the Bandit's Soul is one illustration we have chosen to dwell upon. It is evident that the author is playing with the word meanings, by implicitly displaying the violin-one attribute identifying membership of a musical band (vaguely reflected in 'bandit').[4] Of course, the instrument in which one finds inexhaustible source of self-expression is part of one's soul (or its language at any rate). However, apparent also is the hint at the head as a body limb, and according to some conventions it is where the human soul finds itself dwelling. The message therefore might be viewed as incorporating subtle connotations, and yet the author uses ...
 

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