René Magritte (1898 - 1967)

"Sometimes the name of an object takes the place of a picture," as Magritte said in his essay, 'Les mots et les images' - 'Words and Pictures'. This painting of an 'empty mask' gives visual form to this statement. Words and pictures are interchangeable because neither says anything about the actual reality of things. According to the findings of language theorists, the relationship between things and their names is purely arbitrary and is merely a consequence of the habits of different languages. Magritte applies these findings to the relationship between things and pictures. The pictures are not the things themselves and reveal nothing about them. ___