Almayer's folly 1951

Here we have 'Almayer's Folly' by René Magritte, and wow, the paintwork is so precise, it's like he's rendering a dream in hyper-real detail. Look at how the tower seems to grow from the ground, its roots like some gothic horror movie prop. It is smooth, almost glassy, which gives it that strange feeling. What I like is the way the roots are so dark and dense, but the tower itself is lighter, almost like it's fading into the background. It looks to me as if each brick was carefully placed with tiny brushes. The tower's top is broken, and it makes you wonder what happened here? Was it a storm, or something else entirely? Maybe it's a metaphor for something lost, something broken. Magritte often plays with these kinds of juxtapositions, like his contemporary de Chirico, putting familiar objects in unfamiliar situations. The results are strange, unsettling, but also kind of funny, like a visual joke you're not quite sure you get.