Monday, January 11, 2010

Magritte Museum

Rene Magritte was a Belgian Surrealist painter. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images. His intended goal for his work was to challenge observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality and force viewers to become hypersensitive to their surroundings. Translation: Magritte painted some pretty weird and wacky stuff!

We were in Brussels last summer for the much-anticipated opening of the Magritte Museum, attached to the Musee des Beaux Arts. Here is the drape over the new museum as it was being finished. Very dramatic!
I decided to save the acclaimed Magritte Museum for a winter day activity. I figured it would be a perfect cold day destination as those are the hardest to get motivated. So last week we took advantage of the free admission Wednesday that happens once a month and dove into the strange world of Rene Magritte. No photos allowed but I pulled some internet images to tell our Magritte Museum story...

At first I was worried it could be a museum disaster as they took our stroller and Connor was a wiggle machine. But then she locked into Magritte's art and we had a blast. She would call out what she saw and chuckle "That's SILLY!" before bursting into peals of hearty laughter. The guards in the galleries thought Connor was pretty silly too. They all laughed right along with her.

A GIRAFFE IN A GLASS, THAT'S SILLY! (this was her all time favorite)
A BIRD WITH CLOUDS, THAT'S SILLY!
A LADY WITH A PURPLE FLOWER ON HER FACE, THAT'S SILLY!
HOUSES ON TOP OF EACH OTHER, THAT'S SILLY!
We looked at the following two paintings for a long time. A LADY AT THE BEACH, THAT'S SILLY! We were perplexed at the eyes and lips reflected in them - one on the sand and the other behind a curtain.

I can't say I understand Magritte's work any better or worse, but we had a delightful and hilarious outing to his new Brussels museum. I never would have dreamed what a hit the Surrealist style would be with my two year old. While it is one of the more perplexing and uncomfortable styles for me, it is straightforward and SILLY to a child's mind!

2 comments:

Dallas said...

I totally missed the giraffe. My favorites were the two painted on bottles, and the houses with the hot air balloon shadows on the bottom floor.

Katie C. said...

Connor would love the the "What's Silly" page in High Five - it's the little kids publication from the folks at Highlights - http://www.highlights.com/high-five-magazine-for-kids?productId=hhfmag.

We have a ball with that (over and over and over)with each monthly publication.