Blog Task: Personal Values part i

Les valeurs personnelles, by Rene Maritte, 1952

In Personal Values, an ordinary room setting is shown with a closet and a wooden bed. Subject matters like a shaving brush, soap, a wine glass, a comb and a matchstick are displayed in monumental scale, dominating the room with their eerie presence.

While Magritte believes that no matter how accurate our drawings are, we can never capture an item itself but only its image on the canvas, his paintings are always more representational than expressional. This can be seen from the realistic and academic style in Personal Values and many of his paintings. In another words, he portrayed objects realistically in an unusual context to give them new meanings.

Magritte also manipulated the subject matter’s proportion, in order to stress on the mystery embodied in the ordinary household items shown in his work. In this way, he did not only challenge the viewers’ perception of the world, but also influence their beliefs on the relationship between us and these seemingly ordinary personal items.

Here are some of the meanings each object symbolizes:

Soap - suggesting the significance of cleanliness and tidiness to the artist.

Comb - resting on the bed in a upright position, to represent the importance of grooming and thus social acceptance regarded by the artist through adhering to the social norms of the society.

Shaving brush - another item which constitutes the collection of grooming items. The brush is placed atop the wardrobe, representing the necessity to maintain constantly a socially accepted image while surpressing his desire to explore the subconcious mind (represented by the mirror)

Sky - the painted sky is an extension of the idea of mental interior. With the alteration in visual perception and atmospheric space, the room unbounded by the sky reflects the artist's unlimited room for imagination. 

Wine glass -the tinted blue glass is positioned at the centre of the painting, it maybe suggestive of the fact that Magritte recognized socializing with the higher class of the society as a major part in his life.

to be continued.