The two mysteries 1966

This is "The Two Mysteries" by René Magritte, painted sometime in the 20th century, in oil on canvas. It's a trip, right? Magritte’s got this way of using super smooth, almost airbrushed surfaces, which makes everything look both real and totally unreal at the same time. The painting shows a pipe, floating above a smaller painting of a pipe on an easel. Below that reads “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” or, "This is not a pipe". It’s like he’s messing with our heads, pointing out that what we’re seeing is just an image, not the actual thing. Look at that big pipe floating up top, its matte surface feels so deliberately rendered it could almost be a sculpture. This smoothness makes the image feel very graphic, very immediate, despite its conceptual complexity. Reminds me a little of the slick, uncanny surfaces in some of de Chirico's paintings. With Magritte, it’s never just about what you see, but how you see it!