La Grande Marée 1946

René Magritte made this painting, La Grande Marée, using oil paints to conjure a world that feels both familiar and utterly strange. Look at those brushstrokes! There's something so immediate in the way the paint is applied, like a landscape made of combed pink sand. The torso is divided in two halves: a pale human likeness and a grainy organic form. These opposing halves are typical of Magritte who explored the uncanny and mysterious through the use of unexpected juxtapositions of objects and scenes. The colour palette here is soft, like a faded memory. The pastel blues and pinks create a dreamlike atmosphere, but there's also a certain stillness, an almost eerie quietness. The pink curtain is not quite a curtain, it is like flowing tresses of hair. The way Magritte handles paint reminds me of Philip Guston, particularly in its embrace of the unconventional and in its challenge to our perception. It’s a reminder that art is not just about what we see, but how we see and how we interpret it.