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CrawlingChaos

(1,893 posts)

26. This painting is especially meaningful to me

Fri May 8, 2015, 09:26 PM

May 2015

As a young and super-angsty teenager first discovering fine art, this painting, in particular, had a profound effect on me. I remember staring at it regularly for long minutes, whereupon I pondered the question of what really is art, in it's essence - what is it's purpose, and what is illusion. Heavy thoughts for my young brain at the time.

And I've been making surrealist art ever since. I've always been drawn to surrealism - I love the macabre and absurd aspects of it. I especially love Yves Tanguy and Max Ernst (but so many more, of course). In a very real way, these paintings saved me at a dark time in my life. Art, I've found, can be a kind of salvation. I like to think it saved me from a life of crime. So far.

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The Treachery of Images: This is Not a Pipe by Rene Magritte [View all] CTyankee May 2015 OP

Ceci n'est pas un pape gratuitous May 2015 #1

Good one! CTyankee May 2015 #2

You know how tough it is to find the right context for that gag? gratuitous May 2015 #3

I know you worked hard on it...LOL... CTyankee May 2015 #7

Ceci n'est pas une pipe nucléaire tridim May 2015 #4

Magritte would have loved the irony of that one! CTyankee May 2015 #5

THAT is a highbrow gag. hifiguy May 2015 #9

sometimes I think we're all surrealists here on DU... CTyankee May 2015 #10

Well-spotted, that Hekate May 2015 #30

The real world might only be explained by surreal art. Octafish May 2015 #6

You can see a real progression of this concept when you look at Pop Art retrospectively... CTyankee May 2015 #8

Absolutely. Octafish May 2015 #11

Wow. I have had a very strange thing happen to me with one of Van Gogh's Crows in wheat fields... CTyankee May 2015 #15

That is the Feeling. Octafish May 2015 #41

I am still, albeit only partially, Borges. ananda May 2015 #20

Sea of Joy. Octafish May 2015 #40

Isn't photoreal produced using high resolution projection technology? RadiationTherapy May 2015 #14

I have no idea on the technology employed. I am more concerned with the esthetics... CTyankee May 2015 #16

Reality is stranger than art seveneyes May 2015 #12

I love Escher! CaliforniaPeggy May 2015 #28

Ceci n'est pas une prophet. RadiationTherapy May 2015 #13

Kind of a cop out... CTyankee May 2015 #17

Hell, yeah. RadiationTherapy May 2015 #18

I wonder if Magritte would say we have become the media represenation of what we CTyankee May 2015 #19

I don't know about Magritte, but that is a fascinating concept. RadiationTherapy May 2015 #22

The Human Condition I ananda May 2015 #23

A beautiful comment and an intriguing image. RadiationTherapy May 2015 #24

My pleasure. ananda May 2015 #25

Runner-up in reason.com's 2010 Draw Mohammad contest was: muriel_volestrangler May 2015 #35

Hahaha. i love it. That is really clever. RadiationTherapy May 2015 #42

I am looking. pangaia May 2015 #21

well, I am researching Warhol now for an upcoming essay and hopefully will soon get CTyankee May 2015 #32

I definitely look forward to reading your thoughts on Warhol. pangaia May 2015 #36

I guess they are, "with a twist." CTyankee May 2015 #37

Now that is a true Escher scenario. pangaia May 2015 #39

Oh good awoke_in_2003 May 2015 #44

This painting is especially meaningful to me CrawlingChaos May 2015 #26

Magritte is Dobbs Approved! blogslut May 2015 #27

Like the Subgeniuses say hifiguy May 2015 #46

Ah! This one I know fairly well. longship May 2015 #29

That was a great book. Changed my way of thinking. CBGLuthier May 2015 #33

Once again, a lovely diversion. Thank you. Hekate May 2015 #31

Aw, man...How can you not like Dali? Warren DeMontague May 2015 #34

I think it was his exposure when I was a kid. He was always on TV and seemed to be CTyankee May 2015 #38

"if the lobster phone rings, don't answer it: I'm not here!" Warren DeMontague May 2015 #45

or reprobates who did very bad things...Bernini sent his assistant to slash the face of his CTyankee May 2015 #47

I like Dali a lot, and recently came across Kay Sage, who I think petronius May 2015 #43

I see Dali, I think "Bosch did it better." malthaussen May 2015 #48

I like Bosch, too. Warren DeMontague May 2015 #50

some Magritte works echo Bosch to me... CTyankee May 2015 #51

Magritte was great, very iconic. Warren DeMontague May 2015 #54

I like that right off the bat...intriguing concept...I like the replication of the arches... CTyankee May 2015 #56

k&r Liberal_in_LA May 2015 #49

The Four Stages of Enlightenment malthaussen May 2015 #52

excellent! CTyankee May 2015 #53

It's sort of an echo of Samuel Johnson, malthaussen May 2015 #55

Ha! "I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it!" (New Yorker cartoon)... CTyankee May 2015 #57

I remember it! malthaussen May 2015 #58

That makes us pretty old... CTyankee May 2015 #59

K & R Coventina May 2015 #60

I like Dali's paints, but not very the artist... syringis Apr 2018 #61

I never cared for Dali's surrealist works...Magritte was more my cup of tea... CTyankee Apr 2018 #62