Although he is often grouped with surrealists such as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, and Yves Tanguy, Magritte pursued a different approach to painting. Rather than creating fantastical images or dreamlike visions, he aimed to highlight the strangeness and ambiguity hidden in everyday reality.
“I do not paint visions,” he once said. “According to my principle, through painting I depict objects and their mutual relationship — in such a way that none of our ordinary concepts or feelings necessarily attach to them.”
In this work, the artist presents a room filled with familiar objects, but gives them dimensions inappropriate for everyday human life, creating a sense of disorientation and incongruity. The interior and exterior are inverted: the walls of the room reflect a skyscape. The familiar becomes unfamiliar, the normal becomes strange.
Magritte creates a paradoxical world that, in his words, constitutes “a challenge to ordinary logic.”
When his dealer, Alexander Iolas, first saw this painting, he felt deeply disturbed. Magritte replied clearly:
“In my painting, the comb (and other objects as well) have specifically lost their ‘social character’, turning into useless luxury objects that can leave the spectator feeling hopeless – or even make him sick. Well, this is proof of the effectiveness of the painting.”
Article source:
https://www.renemagritte.org/personal-values.jsp
Image Credits:
https://www.renemagritte.org/personal-values.jsp#google_vignette
