Mental complacency 1950

René Magritte made this rather small oil on canvas, *Mental complacency,* with a muted palette. Imagine him, brush in hand, carefully layering the paint to create a scene that’s both familiar and deeply unsettling. There’s a wall—or is it a painting of a wall?— with two openings. Through one, a tree stands against a landscape, bathed in sunlight. Below, we see water, but unnervingly, there's also a flame. What does it all mean? Magritte’s work always feels like a riddle, right? He's playing with perception, making us question what we see and how we interpret it. It reminds me of the early conceptualists like Jasper Johns, but he did it first. The conversation between artists keeps flowing, doesn’t it? It stretches over time, as each generation builds upon the ideas of those who came before. These paintings stay in your mind, and perhaps that’s the point.