Man in a Bowler Hat 1964

This is René Magritte’s "Man in a Bowler Hat," painted with oils, and it's so, so cool. I can just imagine him, a man in a bowler hat, standing in front of the canvas, thinking how can I mess with reality? He’s playing with how much we assume, and our desire for things to make sense. Like, is the bird obscuring his face, or is it part of his face? It's as if he is showing us that nothing is quite what it seems. You can see the influence of other surrealists like de Chirico and Dalí in Magritte’s work. It's all part of this big conversation between artists, playing with each other’s ideas, pushing boundaries. When I look at a painting like this I think – wow, what an opportunity!