The fine idea 1964

René Magritte made "The fine idea" with oil on canvas, and I just love how bonkers it is! The whole painting is made up of small, repetitive brushstrokes of green, yellow, and white, that give it a lush, kind of vibrating texture. I can imagine Magritte building this image up slowly, stroke by stroke. He was probably thinking about symbolism, dreaming up his dreamlike imagery. What does the horse represent? The building perched on its head? The forest behind it? I think that gesture of building the image through a single, unifying method is so powerful here; the whole painting comes together through these marks. In a way it's like Seurat, but, you know, weirder, and funnier. It makes me think about the endless possibilities that are opened up when artists play off each other's ideas!