René Magritte’s pipe is not a pipe.
It’s a painting of a pipe, a representation rather than the real thing. You can’t stuff tobacco into it, as Magritte once said.
That concept is critical toward understanding the Belgian artist, a key player in the surrealist movement who also influenced a generation of European and American artists after World War II. His impact can further be seen in advertising, animation and film, as well as book and album covers.
Magritte (1898-1967) was not always interested in painting a pretty picture, or even a logical picture.
Instead, he was fascinated with associations, suggestions and creating new meaning out of unusual juxtapositions. His goal was crafting a philosophy as much as it was creating works of art.
Through March 4, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presenting “Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images.” Featuring 68 paintings and drawings by Magritte, as well as 68 works in various media by 31 contemporary artists, the exhibition is an expansive, mind-bending and occasionally perplexing exploration of Magritte’s fixations, his accomplishments and his influence.
The exhibit was specially designed by L.A. artist John Baldessari, an influential conceptualist who is also regarded as a disciple of Magritte.
One can see Baldessari’s imprint from the start. A carpet of puffy white clouds against blue sky covers the floor, while Southern California’s ubiquitous freeways hover overhead on the ceiling.
It’s a playful, inventive trip, one that transforms the museum space into an inverted, otherworldly place perfect for the presentation of surrealist, conceptual and offbeat contemporary art.
The entrance is another crafty touch, a vaguely human contour cut into a wooden door, a direct appropriation from Magritte’s oil “The Unexpected Answer” (1933).
The opening galleries start with a collection of early Magrittes and a few works by Jasper Johns, a collector and avid follower of the Belgian artist. One can see Johns attempting some of the same explorations and recontextualizations of signs and symbols in “Figure 7” (1955) and “White Flag” (1960).
A series of “pipe” paintings by Magritte follows, including the famous “The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe)” (1929). Here and in other works, Magritte is fully engaged in his word-and-image constructions, sometimes employing words that have no relation to the images they’re linked with. Call it free association for an earlier era.
“The Treachery of Images” served as the inspiration for an important book by French critic Michel Foucault that cemented Magritte’s reputation in art and intellectual circles.
The homage continues nearby with “This is Not 100 Boots,” a 2002 photograph by Eleanor Antin that posits 22 boots in front of the iconic Magritte painting. It’s humorous and respectful at the same time.
One soon notices that the bowler hat is a common motif in Magritte’s work. It seems to symbolize his interests in the bourgeois, in anonymity, even in the banal. Unlike his European contemporaries and predecessors, Magritte was not particularly interested in capturing beautiful country landscapes or portraying the elite or nobly poor.
As an amusing touch, the guards in this exhibit are all sporting black bowler hats. Talk about life imitating art.
The cast of contemporary artists in this show is impressive: Baldessari, Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Gober, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Charles Ray, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol.
Sometimes the connections between contemporary artworks and Magritte’s achievements are clear.
Jim Shaw’s “Bon Idée” (1987) is a rock ‘n’ roll version of Magritte’s “The Interpretation of Dreams” (1952). Gober’s enormous 1991 cigar sculpture is a direct reference to Magritte’s “State of Grace” (1959), sans bicycle. And Vija Celmins’ larger-than-life 1970 comb sculpture looks as if it was lifted from Magritte’s “Personal Values” (1952), a collage of oversized personal effects.
A series of album covers by musicians such as Elton John, Jeff Beck and Alan Hull indicate Magritte’s continuing influence on pop artists. Some of the covers are reinterpretations, while others are direct reproductions of Magritte paintings. Beck’s 1969 album, “Beck-Ola,” features “The Listening Room” (1952) – a green apple dominating an otherwise empty room – on its cover.
But the connections aren’t as clear with other contemporary juxtapositions. Curator Stephanie Barron explains in her catalog essay that “in most cases it is a broader shared sensibility behind the imagery that has led to the inclusion of the contemporary artists.”
Sure, that’s a decent enough explanation for the dozens of recent works we see in LACMA’s Magritte show. But “shared sensibility” is such a broad concept that it allows for nearly anything into the gallery that’s vaguely surrealist, Dada, pop or postmodern.
For instance, the inclusion of Andy Warhol’s “Kellogg’s Corn Flakes Boxes” (1971) might raise an eyebrow and be considered a bit of a stretch, since there’s hardly anything like that in Magritte’s oeuvre. However, it’s still a cool thing to see.
Overall, the spirit of inclusiveness is not so amorphous that it overwhelms or confuses the viewer.
Back to the primary man in question: The breadth of Magritte’s work on display is impressive, but this exhibit is missing some of the painter’s greatest hits, including “Golconda” (1953), “Castle in the Pyrenees” (1959) and “The Great Family (La Grande Famille)” (1963). Understandably, there could have been some difficulty getting those masterpieces on loan.
Nonetheless, there are still some stunners in this show, including “Decalcomania” (1966), painted in the year before his death. It’s a finely crafted reflection on mortality, timelessness and the passage from one life stage to another.
“Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images” does much to advance the case that Magritte was one of the 20th century’s most important artists, with nearly as much philosophical and conceptual impact as Dada king Marcel Duchamp.
Contact the writer: 714-796-6026 or rchang@ocregister.com
