Rene Magritte

Written by Sarah Beam:

For our next project, a Graphic Design Inspired Illustration, Ye Zhang and I are partners. Ye and I chose Rene Magritte as our artist inspiration.

Short Biography:

Rene Magritte was a Belgian painter, printmaker, film maker, sculptor, and photographer. He was one of the biggest influences and major players in Surrealism. He was born in 1898 and died in 1967. In 1912 Magritte's mother committed suicide which many people claim as having had a large influence over much of the darkness and mystery in some of his pieces. In his work he tries to challenge the preconceived perceptions of reality that the viewer has. Magritte's work often has everyday objects as subjects but presents them in surprising or unusual ways. His work grew in popularity in the 1960s and is still popular today.

(Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/92/Wolleh_magritte.jpg)

The piece we agreed upon is Golconda from 1953.

(http://www.wallsave.com/wallpapers/1024x768/surrealism/208230/surrealism-keywords-golconda-rene-magritte-painting-s-208230.jpg)

Description:

Golconda is a Surrealist piece with a very conservative and limited color palette and very regular and conservative line quality, however, it's unique composition is what makes it so compelling. Magritte used perspective to make the buildings look more real, but they really get pushed into the background as the viewer's focus shifts from figure to figure floating in the sky. The red pop of color is really needed to help the building stand out. The Surrealist approach of taking things out of their usual context is obvious in Golconda since the men are floating through the blue sky. Ye and I agreed that what made this piece so successful was the fact that although the subjects of the piece are very normal and everyday things the jarring composition really makes you look at the piece again to try to figure out what's going on. It makes you question ordinary things. 

Tulsa Subject:

(http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/b6/a1/5b/quiktrip-exposition-center.jpg)

(http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1033/724630860_88bd400f8f_m.jpg)

Our chosen landmarks for this project are the Tulsa Driller, and McFarlin Library. We chose the Tulsa Driller because Ye said that when he came to Tulsa the Tulsa Driller was one of the first landmarks that he heard about from his friends because they thought it was so odd. Which really fits with Magritte's work. And we chose McFarlin Library because it's really iconic for the TU campus. It will work perfectly as the background building for our piece based off of Golconda. 

Maybe an Execution Path:

We will probably cut part of McFarlin Library to use as the background building, so the tall part of the building lines up to the right side of the artboard and fades off. We will take different angles and views of the Tulsa Driller and have them floating all through the air in varying sizes, fading the color of the smallest figures to make them appear as if they are farther away. In this way we can emulate the style of Magritte by putting everyday buildings and objects into a surrealist composition.

Plan of Action:

Ye will be illustrating McFarlin Library and the sky, so essentially taking care of the background. I, Sarah, will be illustrating the various Tulsa Drillers. We will make other executive choices and changes about the piece together.