René Magritte, "Dangerous Liaisons" (at the Blain/Di Donna Gallery)

Magritte is creamy -- he is smooth, concentrated milk.

 

For some weird reason, most people believe they know every Magritte painting. Dangerous Liaisons contains many I'd never seen -- especially the erotic ones (such as Le Domaine enchanté (II)).

 

There is no word "Magrittian" -- like the term "Borgesian" -- because no one followed in this artist's path (though many of us rip off Jorge Luis Borges.) Why? Because it's difficult to be Magritte -- to be that creamy.

 

Once Magritte was interviewed by Time magazine. At one point, the Time reporter turned his back on the artist for a moment. Magritte kicked him in the ass!

 

When the journalist looked up, shocked, Magritte had an innocent expression, as if he knew nothing. (René dressed like the immaculate bourgeois businessmen in his paintings.)

 

Magritte is not a surrealist. Though maybe he thought he was. There's a little extra twist in Magritte, the same twist you find in a Sufi tale.

 

All the titles in this show are in (untranslated) French. Here are some of them:

 

La Génération spontanée

La Paix de soir

Le Sourire du diable

Le Retour à la terre natale

 

I know this makes the exhibition difficult for monolingual washerwomen, but these titles strike me as wonderfully pure (or pur). Besides, I speak French.

 

I wrote a poem recently on this subject:

 

Confession

 

My heart is democratic,

But my soul's a cruel elitist.

Tags: Magritte