Portrait 1923

This 'Portrait' was painted by René Magritte in 1923, and is made up of strong geometric forms and clashing primary colours. I love that the shapes come together to suggest a face, like looking at a portrait through a broken mirror. Magritte wasn't afraid to use blocks of color, roughly brushed in, that pull you in and out of the image. Look how he combines black, red, and yellow to create an unsettling presence. It’s like he’s not just painting a portrait, but building a puzzle with emotion. The flatness of the paint makes you think about how art is constructed, not just how it looks. There's a similar fragmentation in the work of Picasso, but Magritte adds his own cool, eerie edge to the conversation. To me, this piece says that a painting is as much about the process of seeing as it is about what’s being seen.