The Treachery of Images - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... The important distinction between them, which is present in the Magritte’s works, follows: words reference the world and images represent the world. His ideas about real and unreal differ from the classical concepts. Rene Magritte argued that: "Sometimes the image of the object takes the place of its name. The word can take place of the object in the reality. From the mismatch the artist came to the denial. By writing "This is not a pipe" he brings havoc to all the traditional relationship between word and image.
The word "representational," when it’s used as a determination for a work of art, means that the painting depicts something taken from a real world which most spectators can easily recognize. Representation can be regarded as a smooth transition between artist’s thoughts and the real embodiment of a piece of art, whereas the understanding of representation by an audience may not coincide with the initial artist’s idea. At the same time the artist tries to convey the idea so that it could be understood by the audience, so, representational pieces of art requires one’s efforts to understand it since itis initially presupposed to contain some particular sense. This type of art is clearly seen on the painting of Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife by Van Eyck and The Rocky Mountains by Bierstadt.
Abstract art in its turn, tends to "harmonization", to the creation of a combination of certain colors and geometric shapes in order to cause a variety of contemplative associations. Abstract aims to create an extremely saturated painting with quite an ambiguous meaning conveyed by its figures. ...Download file to see next pagesRead More