The mark 1948

René Magritte painted this untitled oil on canvas with colorful rays of paint. It's like he's trying to figure something out, pushing against the boundaries of what we expect to see. I imagine him standing there, brush in hand, layering those strokes of red and green, trying to build up something solid, but also letting it breathe and shift. Is that a blanket, a piece of meat and a sun? What’s the link? He's probably thinking about how objects relate to one another, how they can be both familiar and strange at the same time. It reminds me of other painters who weren't afraid to break the rules, like de Chirico or Picabia. It’s like he's having a conversation with them across time, riffing on their ideas, pushing the boundaries of what painting can do. And ultimately, that's what it's all about: keeping the conversation going, one painting at a time.