Surrealism And Unrealism In Reronne Magrittes Golconda

In Rene Magritte’s Golconda, a painting made in 1953, which is now on display at the Menil collection in Houston, Texas, the artist uses surrealism to capture the boring routine life of the suburban environment. Magritte is famously known for his use of bowler hats, possibly to depict a working man of importance and class, here, he reduces the businessman to a mere pattern alongside many others. This brings forward alienation and the emotion of isolation-both of which are described by Marxist and existential philosophy. Renà © Franà §ois Ghislain Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist who liked to challenge viewer’s preconditioned perceptions of reality. Surrealism developed its popularity around the turn of the last century. It consisted†¦show more content†¦This image is thought to be a source of many of Magritte’s paintings. One of his most famous paintings, Golconda, is a good example of his perception between ordinary and mystery. This art piece was named by his friend, after the city of Golkonda. It is famous for once being a very rich city for mining some of the world’s most famous gems. It is possible that it was named this as a play on wealth in suburbs and how boring it has become. Rich business men living in expensive suburbs wearing suits and bowler hats could not produce something as beautiful as the diamonds produced in Golkonda. As tribute for naming the work of art Magritte placed his friend in the foreground of the painting near the chimney on the right. The painting depicts a suburban environment, one similar to to where he lived, with a partly cloudy sky. Men dressed in dark coats and bowler hats, which were common clothes of bankers and businessmen, are shown throughout the painting from left to right and top to bottom. They are present in the foreground, middleground, and backgro und spread out and evenly distributed becoming more anonymous as they subside into the distance. No one can tell if they are either rising or falling because there is no sense of motion. So it can only be assumed that the men are hovering ambiguously in space. The clear blue sky acts as proof that they are not â€Å"raining† down. The men also