Métaphore 1923

René Magritte made this painting called ‘Métaphore’ using oil on canvas. I’m wondering what kind of metaphor is suggested here... A woman with no face, shapes and objects carefully arranged across the canvas, the cracked surface of the paint that brings a sense of age to it all. It’s really clever how Magritte brought together these flat shapes, and the woman’s body, of course, painted with thin oil. The woman is so present, and yet, in a way, she’s not. Is she just another object here? Her lack of facial features is strange and striking. Her face is erased. The black shapes loom behind her, and the coloured shapes add little pops of intrigue. I get a sense of disconnection, a sort of existential question mark hanging in the air. Magritte always makes us question what we see, and how we see it. It’s like he’s inviting us to rethink our connection to the world through these surprising combinations of image and object.