Advertisment for "Norine" 1925

René Magritte made this advertisement for "Norine" sometime in the 1920's, probably with gouache or tempera on paper. He's using flat planes of color and crisp, clean lines, almost like he's sketching out a blueprint for something. It's like he's building up the image piece by piece, but it has this kind of playful quality, too. The colors are muted, mostly browns and beiges, but then you get these unexpected pops of red and green that give it this kind of surreal, dreamlike vibe. Take a look at the figure on the right: the way he's outlined the figure in this sketchy way, but then fills in the face with this red block of color. The painting is a reminder that art isn't always about capturing reality, but more about creating different ways of seeing. Magritte reminds me a bit of Giorgio de Chirico, in that both were interested in dreamlike juxtapositions of objects and figures. It suggests that art is an ongoing conversation, where artists riff off each other's ideas across time.