Youth 1924

René Magritte made this oil painting called 'Youth' by layering fractured shapes of color, like he's piecing together a dream. Just imagine him standing in front of the canvas, brush in hand, head tilted slightly as he decides where to put the next dab of paint. The woman gazes out, maybe at the boats, but really, where is she looking? The water is broken up into geometric shards of blue and green, but you can still feel the movement, the constant motion of the waves. There’s something so satisfying about how the colors crash against each other, a push and pull that keeps your eye dancing across the surface. You get a sense that Magritte is having a conversation with other painters who are interested in Cubism, like Picasso and Braque, but he's whispering his own secrets. Ultimately, painters all have a way of talking to each other, trading ideas and inspiring each other, like a never-ending game of telephone. And it’s up to us to listen in, to find our own meaning in the spaces between the brushstrokes.