ABSTRACT

For René Magritte, painting was a form of thinking. Through paintings of ordinary objects rendered with illusionism, Magritte probed the limits of our perception—what we see and cannot see, the nature of representation—as a philosophical system for presenting ideas, and explored perspective as a method of visual argumentation. This book makes the claim that Magritte’s painting is about vision and the act of viewing, of perception itself, and the process of how we see and experience things in the world, including paintings as things.

chapter |8 pages

Introduction

chapter 1|27 pages

Bringing Thought to Life

chapter 2|25 pages

The Use of Speech in Painting

chapter 3|24 pages

The Mystery of the Visible

chapter 4|30 pages

Inspired Thought

chapter 5|12 pages

Conclusion

Ends and Endings