Memory of a journey 1955

René Magritte made this painting, Memory of a Journey, and I see the Tower of Pisa and a feather, like he just put them together on a stage. What a funny guy, huh? I see the feather as a big swoosh of gray, leaning on the Tower, like the Tower has become exhausted and frail. The feather is there to keep it upright and alive. It makes me think about my studio practice and just wanting to put things together that don’t seem like they go together. The feather looks like it’s exhaling, a sense of breath and wind going through the feather, its fibers, and into the Tower. The colors are so flat and gray, that it becomes a funny landscape, like something you dreamed. It makes me think about art history, and the history of painting, and all the things paintings can be.