Clear ideas 1958

René Magritte made this painting, with oil on canvas, called Clear Ideas. And it’s got that kind of impossible juxtaposition he was so good at. He’s got this cloud floating above a rock, and then a stormy ocean below. There’s a real smooth, blended quality to the brushwork. The colours are muted: greys, blues, and whites. It’s like a dream. But the details! Look at the rock. You can almost feel the texture, the rough surface, the little holes and crevices. It’s not just a flat grey blob. Magritte really took the time to build up the surface. You can almost feel the weight of that thing hanging there. It's also like he used classical painting techniques to conjure a thoroughly modern sense of alienation and uncertainty. Like a lot of surrealists, Giorgio de Chirico comes to mind. He was into similar unsettling images. But maybe also someone like Caspar David Friedrich, who knew how to make landscapes that are both beautiful and a little scary. It’s this tension between representation and something that goes beyond it.