The Rape 1966

René Magritte made this drawing on paper called The Rape. You’re looking at the portrait of a woman, but the upper part of her body replaces the face. I imagine Magritte, with his bowler hat and his bourgeois sensibility, trying to grapple with something unspeakable. He's using the language of surrealism, where things aren't quite what they seem. In a simple pencil drawing, he captures something truly disturbing. The title itself is a provocation, a dare. The artist has put it there for us to consider. There's something both compelling and repulsive about this image. It forces you to confront the objectification of the female form. Magritte, as part of a dialogue with other artists, wanted us to explore the tension between the visible and the hidden, the familiar and the strange. That’s how painting keeps us questioning and opening up possibilities.