Magritte, The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe)

and lack mine we're looking at Magritte's the treachery of images from 1929 or also called pump you this is not a pipe okay so but it's a hilarious painting this is hilarious it's an incredibly real painting of a pipe Magritte paints in this incredibly wonderful matter-of-fact kind of absolutely mundane illustrative yeah like he was illustrating a knack at allot and with the words underneath it's as if you're looking at one of the flashcards you would have as a child every high but it's not a fight that's right and of course he's right it's not a pipe it's a it's a painting of a pipe participate where is the authority do we believe what we're seeing in the veracity of the illustration the sort of perfect representation of the almost platonic pipe people or actually were played exactly or do we believe the text underneath which tells us it's not a pipe which is stronger the representation of the thing or the language that denies it for me yeah for you the picture of the patent picture of the pipe is more powerful than the language yes that's so interesting because I think for most and maybe that's cuz you're an artist or Ian and you just look at size again maybe so I believe whatever because so many people believe what they read and since I think the language has a kind of authority but for me it is this sort of perfect almost balance and struggle between the two uh-huh where I just absolutely accept that pipe it is it's there it's this pipe it's this perfect representation of a pipe and the language is completely denying it and has tremendous authority as well and it's this fantastic tension between that presentation and then that rejection of the present and then of course is the word pipe which is in a way just as much of an abstraction from the actual item the pie okay so there so the representation of the pipe is twofold there's the representation of the pipe as an image as an image this iconic and then there's the word because it's linguistic symbol yeah right and they're both not a part it's not a pie that's right they're both actually ways of representing a pipe or our notion of what that pipe is in somebody's mouth somewhere what else could this be a picture of well it's a picture it is a pain so it is its original I the same area they're both in the painting okay so when Magritte paints this he's clearly challenging this notion of authority and which in what and it's really playful and also it's just challenging the holes illusionistic history of Western art right no question about it and he's doing it again with the kind of faux naturalism right this kind of self-conscious naturally which really sort of transcends naturalism in in its sort of self reference perfectly painted in but also perfectly written text because the script is again the kind of didactic script that you would find in a kindergarten right classroom right which is really meant to be instructive and meant to be full of authority right and so this is a painting really about the denial of authorities of language hey I remember when my daughter was really little and I woke up every morning and she looked at books of pictures just like this one that's right and then pointed and I had to give her the names for today you've really screwed her up I had giving her a book which said this is not