[ART ANALYSIS] What's Hiding Underneath The Cloth?
I believe that the Belgian surrealist René Magritte (1898-1968) is particularly valuable in how he challenged the concept of "art". A classic example is his "La condition humaine" (The human condition), which depicts a painting on an easel. The painting in the picture in its turn depicts a view and is just in front of a window, placed so that we can't see the view from the window, but only the landscape in the painting. Another example is his famous pipe with the text "Ceci n’est pas une pipe" (This is not a pipe.) Magritte in this way engage the spectator in a theoretical discussion about what exactly an image is. And if it's not a pipe, what then? What's the difference between a pipe and an image of a pipe? Magritte points out that the image and what is depicted are two different phenomena that can never be identical. An image is always "something else". Something beyond the depicted object in the material world. For Magritte, this indefinable extra dimension is the mystery. And if the image always is something other than what is depicted, it must be true that the relationship object-image is arbitrary, just as arbitrary as the relationship between the object pipe and the sound of the word "pipe".
When Magritte was 13 years old, his mother committed suicide. She jumped into the river Sambre and was found with her dress over her face. This is considered to be the origin of several paintings by Magritte where people are hiding their faces with various items.
The image that we'll discuss today is "L'invention de la vie" (The Invention of Life), probably my favorite Magritte painting. It's also one of the most challenging images that I know of. Just look at the eyes of the woman! She's inviting and testing you, and after a moment the eye contact becomes almost a little bit annoying. Her gaze is as enigmatic as Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, and her smile just as wry, but slightly malicious and as if hiding something gruesome. What are you waiting for? Or rather: What do you expect? What do you think is hiding underneath the cloth?
Unfortunately I've never seen the painting for real, but I can imagine an aspect of the work that would be enriched by the other spectators in the room - if I would be in the same room as the painting and take a few steps back, I would probably end up behind a few other spectators. Perhaps the audience would obscure the lower part of the painting. By approaching the painting and the spectators in front of me from behind, what was an intimate communication between me and the woman is now turned into a display - I see the audience (which consists of the people spectating the painting) standing and waiting for "Life" to be unveiled. The woman isn't looking directly at me, but at the audience as a whole. Are you ready?
So, what do we then believe to be behind the cloth? A monster? A human? A statue? Is the creation of art the creation of life? And if so, is the whole painting itself the intended life? Did Magritte himself know what's underneath, and does it really matter? What's underneath it for me, is perhaps something entirely different for you? The meaning, if I'm allowed to use a slightly worn out expression, is in the eye of the beholder. Or rather, in the imagination of the beholder. Maybe it was ME that was hiding underneath the cloth all along?
Another question I ask myself is who the woman in the painting is. Is she the creator of life, is she life, or is she waiting for the unveiling, just like us? Is she subject or object? Or is whoever/whatever is hiding underneath the cloth the main object? It's a play on the difference between the sender (Magritte) and the spectators - who are we and what are we doing here? Who's the person in the picture and what is she waiting for? Do we know what's under the cloth? Through whose eyes do we see the image, someone who knows what's hiding underneath or someone who doesn't? Which character's point of view orients the narrative perspective? Am I that character? Important art inspires the viewer to ask important questions, regardless of previous knowledge of art history.
— SteemSwede