In the series of painted word canvases he created in Paris between 1927 and 1930, Magritte was keen to show there is nothing to link a real object, its depiction and the name it is given. In La clef des songes (The Key of Dreams), he impugns language: words are arbitrary! Why shouldn’t an egg be called “acacia”? Or a shoe, “moon”? Who decided to give these objects the names we now know them by? In this series, Magritte exposes how words are ill-suited to describe reality and how we do well to be weary of them.

In 1933, Magritte came up with a new way of exploring everyday life through what he referred to as elective affinities. From this time forward, he set out to reveal the hidden links between objects. In doing so, in one and the same image he was seen to bring together things like a cage and an egg, a door and an opening and feet and shoes. Seizing on the metamorphosis in Le modèle rouge (The Red Model), he showed that wearing shoes is in fact a “monstrous custom” as he put it himself!

At the height of the Second World War, Magritte used his skilled brush to cross the occupying Germans. Over the four years under German rule, he changed his style and colour palette: borrowing the dots & dashes touch from the Impressionist painters, he swapped his earlier dark tones for vibrant colours. His topics too were seen to change: sirens and mermaids, children playing music, floral bouquets, animal portraits, Scheherazade,… Standing in stark contrast to the harsh realities of war, charm and fun became part of the Magritte experience.

Magritte produced his greatest masterpieces during the last twenty years of his career. More than a painter, Magritte is a poet of imagery. In his paintings, anything is possible: day and night are seen to meld, rocks float beneath the sea, a giant apple worms its way into a room, a skybird flies over the city. Thanks to Magritte, our world has changed. Objects and the way we experience everyday life are steeped in mystery and poetry which has not ceased to amaze and beguile us since.