The beneficial promise 1927

René Magritte made this enigmatic oil painting, The Beneficial Promise, exploring ideas around sight and touch. Magritte's painting has a tight surface with thin layers of paint. Everything feels carefully planned, each element existing in its own separate space, but also together. The colors are muted - browns and grays - that gives the whole painting an unsettling, somber, and quiet mood. Take a look at the hand. It's resting on a bald head, which sits on a wooden surface with a strangely insistent grain. Above, a ghostly face stares off to the side. What are they thinking? How do they relate to each other? The title just deepens the mystery. It reminds me a little of Giorgio de Chirico, but with a bit more humor. Magritte’s work reminds us that art is not about answers. It’s about the questions it makes us ask.