Rene Magritte

Magritte depicts leaves suspended in the air, a glowing yellow moon hovering in front of the scene. This special work combines the calm of a starry night with the magical imagery of dreams.

Addressing the dislocation of space and time, Magritte depicts two of his favorite subjects: the sky and a bird. We witness the simultaneous occurrence of day and night with the soaring bird serving as a window to the cloud-speckled daytime sky and are left in a dreamlike state, not sure of what we are seeing.

In Magritte's eyes, weightlessness could easily overcome the forces of gravity with a little imagination. This castle in the sky rests upon a hovering rock, appearing as an image from a fairy tale in which we are transported to another realm - one in which the laws of physics are nullified.

Coined by Magritte as a "defiance of common sense," this striking work evokes the strangeness and ambiguity apparent in reality. Placing ordinary objects in an unusual context, this disorienting work makes us question our own perceptions of reality and how we view our everyday lives.

One of Magritte's most iconic images shows a sunny blue sky hovering over a house and trees illuminated by a sole street lamp. The work's sense of mystery and poetry entrances the viewer.

This work exemplifies a device that Magritte commonly utilized: partially hiding an object by placing a smaller object in front of it and, therefore, denying the viewer complete access to the larger image.

Magritte jump started his artistic career designing wallpaper, and his knack for repetitive forms in a rhythmic pattern shines through in this engaging work. Addressing one of his favorite subjects - the bourgeois man in a bowler hat- we witness these men vertically arranged in the sky either falling downwards or suspended in air.

By capturing what might be there and hiding what is there, Magritte encourages us to explore reality and challenge the conventional ways in which we think, of which La belle captive is the perfect representation.

Pitting the scientific against the poetic, Magritte defies gravity with his weightless subjects. Against all reason, a large rock hovers in air besides a fluffy cloud, leading us to question the laws of physics.

Magritte's style was to oppose reality but also define it so the average person would instantly equate meanings to that which Magritte could then shatter, and Heartstring does just that.

Planet Earth drifts amidst a backdrop of stars connected to a single vine. Perhaps a perception that Earth cannot survive by itself or hinting to life in space, Magritte is infamous for his duality in his works.

Presenting what he refers to as "the solution to the problem of water," Magritte depicts a boat composed of water sitting upon water against a brilliant clouded sky. The majestic sea nearly appears to have no end in this magnificent work, perhaps implying that water is a necessity that abounds everywhere.

Both mysterious and light-hearted, this unusual landscape actually pays homage to a 5th century Greek philosopher. Its blue overtones evoke a sense of calm and timelessness.

This mind-bending work invites the viewer to enter another realm, leaving behind the realistic and entering the fantastic. A recurring motif in Magritte's works, we witness a certain paradox or contrast between space and time, as the foreground conveys a night scene and the background appears illuminated in a daytime glow.

In this playful nude, Magritte renders the female body with all of its parts separated. A flat, polished seascape stretches into the horizon behind the subject, evoking calm in the face of absurdity.

Fascinated with repetitions of the same motif, Magritte conveys two very different objects, the bird and the forest, detailed in the same motif of branches and foliage. This motif establishes a mental and visual connection between these two seemingly unrelated objects, leading us to question their relationship.

Created after Magritte's last painting prior to his death in 1967, this significant work evokes a sense of the circle of life, in which the tree lies within a leaf that was likely plucked from the tree itself. In the context of Magritte's life, we sense contrasting themes of youth and maturity, creation and destruction, and abundance and barrenness, as he perhaps knew that his time was coming to an end.

Presenting a rather complex reality, in which Magritte reveled in portraying, this work is of a bird. However like any Magritte, the bird is not your characteristic variety, but one decorated with clouds and a blue sky against a sea of dark blue. Appearing frozen in the moment, this color lithograph presents the viewer with a sense of serenity.

One of a number of works entitled Megalomania that Magritte produced in the 1940-60s depicting three hollow parts of a woman's body stacked into each other like a set of Russian dolls, this work appears as a giant puzzle, constantly shifting. One of Magritte's favorite subjects was the female torso, and he here addresses this subject in an unusual manner, breaking the female body into disjointed segments.