Le Météore 

René Magritte’s Le Météore presents us with a horse, a tower, a forest, and a stage curtain. The disjunction of elements in this 20th-century painting challenges the traditional roles of art. Painted by a Belgian artist, in a region that had already made its name for the surreal, what we see here are many of the themes that mark art's increasing self-awareness. The stage curtain could be seen as symbolic of the art gallery or museum, within which surprising and unrelated objects are brought together for display. But here, it seems, the traditional values associated with such institutions are being undermined. Instead of order, rationality, and the seamless integration of past and present, we have illogical juxtaposition. The artist's role is changing from craftsman to intellectual, art's role changing from illustration to provocation. Art history now provides abundant archival material which allows us to understand better the intentions of modern artists and the social function of their work.