Rene Magritte– The Banquet, 1958
People who look for symbolic meaning fail to grasp the inherent poetry and mystery of the images.
—Rene Magritte
I absolutely love this painting, The Banquet, from Rene Magritte in 1958. It has the effect where I don’t question anything about it. I just accept it as it is presented. I am not looking for symbolism in it at all, not looking for a reason why the red ball of sun is hovering low in front of the trees. The colors, the contrast, the composition– they create a whole sensation doesn’t need a why or what or how.
As Magritte points out, it contains poetry and mystery.
And that is something to try to understand. I know I often feel the need to try to explain my work, to point out where I find an emotional base in a piece. Sometimes that is easy, almost jumping out at you. But sometimes it is not so obvious and it is simply the mystery of the created feel, a great intangible pulse, that makes a particular painting work.
You see it, feel it, accept its reality yet you don’t fully understand the why and how.
And maybe that is just as it should be. Not all we behold can or should be explained. Sometimes, maybe we simply need to experience poetry and mystery.
I have had this painting from Magritte in my mind in recent days. I thought I should share this older post about a quote from Magritte that speaks to the poetry and mystery in it. I’ve been struggling a bit in recent weeks with my work, trying to recover that sense of poetry and mystery in my own work. It’s been a matter of overthinking when less thought is required, of trusting my instincts and reactions, rather than trying to factor in those of others. About explaining less, if at all, and letting what poetry is there reveal itself.
To try to not solve the apparent mystery of it. To just let it be as it is.
It sometimes seems difficult. But when it eventually happens, you realize how simple it truly is. Hopefully, I am nearing that point.
Redtree Times 