The Human Condition Posted by Gretchen Denaro on November 21, 1997 at 17:14:07:
TITLE: The Human Condition
DEFINITON: Painting
CREATOR: Rene Magritte
MAIN CATEGORY: Art
ALTERNATIVE CATEGORY: Consciousness
RELATIONSHIP TO COREWAVE: How closely do we look at the world around us? How far removed are we from what is "real"? What is real and what is illusion?
MAIN QUOTE: " This is how we see the world. Wee see it outside ourselves, and at the same time we only have a representation of it in ourselves. In the same way, we sometimes situate in the past that which is happening in the present. Time and space thus lose the vulgar meaning that only daily experience takes into account."
HIGHLIGHT QUOTES: " For the spectator, it was both inside the room within the painting and outside in the real landscape. This simultaneous existence in two different spaces is like living simultaneously in the past and in the present, as in cases of deja vu."
HIGHLIGHT RECOMMENDATION: Although I feel that Magritte painted many works that could be included here, this one probably relates to the Core Wave more than the others. I am interested in Magritte's work because he not only proposes important questions in his paintings, he does so with a great sense of humor. When I first looked at the painting, I saw a window with a pastoral scene in the background, then I noticed the easel. My mind did a flip-flop and I had to refocus my attention to the subject. I felt outside of the painting, yet inside the work itself. My viewing and interpretating this piece became part of it.
DEEPER: Bertrand Russell's explanation of the self seeing the self seeing the self...
CONNECTIONS: Migration, Earth
IMAGES AND CLIPS:
ACCESS AND DISTRIBUTION: "Magritte-Ideas and Images" by Harry Torczyner or websites with paintings by Magritte (link to this painting supplied in link title.)
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: Please excuse my first two attempts to send this submission, my husband and I just got online last night and are new at this stuff. Very glad we discovered your site. Please be willing to help advise me how to get you the info you may need to complete my submission. Thanks.