The Poetry of Painting

By Sona Stepanian
Daily Bruin Contributor

Although the Belgian surrealist painter Rene Magritte is known
for his art, he could have easily made a career of poetry.

Magritte’s paintings, drawings and sculptures are currently on
display at the Museum in an exhibit entitled "Rene Magritte: The
Poetry of Silence."

"The title of the exhibit is an acknowledgment of the centrality
of poetry to the Belgian surrealist group," says Elizabeth
Shepherd, senior curator at the Armand Hammer Museum.

"Many of Magritte’s friends and peers in that group were poets
or writers and Magritte himself often referred to his paintings as
‘visible poetry,’ which is an indication of how important he felt
poetry was. He even once proclaimed that poetry was superior to
painting, but he really stuck to the painting," she says.

About 45 of Magritte’s works, spanning approximately five
decades, are on exhibit through Jan. 5. This is the first time in
over 30 years that a major Magritte exhibit has visited the West
coast.

A 1992 retrospective of Magritte’s work never reached the West
coast but generated interest about his works. According to
Shepherd, loans of his art have become harder to get, therefore it
took a long time to organize a full-scale exhibit.

Along with paintings such as "The Lovers," "The Rape," "The
Treachery of Images" and "The Eternally Obvious," the exhibit also
features a series of poetry readings based on poems inspired by
Magritte’s work. Six contemporary American poets, Rosanna Warren,
Richard Howard, Debora Greger, John Hollander, Jorie Graham and
J.D. McClatchy have written original poems for the exhibit. Five of
them will be holding poetry readings in the museum on Thursday
evenings.

"We do a series of poetry readings in connection with the
English department because it enhances the exhibit in a way that
Magritte would have approved of," says Shepherd. "He really didn’t
feel his paintings should express ideas. He felt they should create
ideas and I think that is an idea that is very sympathetic to a lot
of contemporary poetry."

One of Magritte’s ideas manifested itself in "The Rape," which,
at first glance, looks like a human face but further scrutiny
reveals a naked female body.

Magritte’s use of familiar images and common objects has added
versatility and wide-scale appeal to his work.

"His visual vocabulary is very familiar because he uses objects
that we all know from our own experiences," Shepherd says. "He
creates juxtapositions that really tend to imbue the work with a
sense of infinite and vast mystery."

Because of the mass appeal of his art, Magritte’s work, full of
scale distortions and space manipulations, has also found a market
in the advertising world. For example, "The Lovers" is a painting
of a couple, standing arm in arm amidst a dark landscape, wearing
sacks over their heads and is reminiscent of pictures found on some
greeting cards.

"We’re used to seeing him ripped off in advertising," Shepherd
explains. "Once you see these images you begin to realize how often
Magritte has served as the inspiration for advertising
campaigns."

Since the exhibit features original paintings and poetry,
Shepherd believes that this is a great chance to see the
inspirations for many commercial advertisements.

"It’s a wonderful opportunity to get a sense not of the diluted
versions that we are familiar with but to see the actual
objects."

The simplistic depiction of objects and the combination of
reality and fantasy found in Magritte’s work continue to amass
public interest and Shepherd is optimistic that this exhibit will
be one of the most successful the museum has offered yet.

The accessibility of Magritte’s work and his ability to simply
depict life as he saw it make him popular among fans of any art
form.

"I think one of Magritte’s strengths was his ability to comment
on our urge to label things and to give meaning to them," says
Shepherd. "If you can give meaning to something and label it, then
you can dominate it and I think he tried to tell us, instead, to
try to accept the inevitable mysteries of the world and to learn to
tolerate those terrible ambiguities and uncertainties of life."

Exhibit: :"Rene Magritte: The Poetry of Silence" runs through
Jan. 5 at the Armand Hammer Museum. Tickets are $1.00 with student
I.D. Call (310)443-7000 for more info.

"La fin des contemplations (an end to contemplation)," by Rene
Magritte. The Menil Collection, Houston

Works by Rene Magritte, including "La clef de verre (The glass
key)," are showing at the Armand Hammer Museum.The Gilbert Kaplan
Museum

Paintings by other surrealists such as Joan Miro, can be seen
alongside the "Poetry of Silence" exhibit.The Menil Collection,
Houston

"L’alphabet des Revelations," in a collection by Rene
Magritte.