This is Not a Pipe.

“Art is not ‘the thing’. Only the thing is the thing.” Rene Magritte, regarding his painting The Treachery of Images.

What do you see? For the class, this painting and several others were presented. Since the class had a chance to offer answers, and this review doesn’t offer a comment opportunity (but please, write down your thoughts a you follow along), through this review I will offer some of the comments from the class.

What do you see? A pipe. Realistically painted. On a cream colored background. Some words written underneath, written in a foreign language. (Maybe French?)

Now the rules of “What do you see?” are to be completely objective and literal, so if you don’t know French, you should not look it up yet. But I am going to help you out here, because French speaking observers will have a completely different experience with this painting than you. So, the translation of “Leci n’est pas une pipe” is “This is not a pipe”.

There is not much else to see here, so lets move on to “What do you feel?”. Some people felt curious, confused, amused. Take a moment to think about what YOU feel.

“What do you wonder about?” Here are some starter questions:

What is the painting called? The Treachery of Images or sometimes called This Is Not a Pipe.

Who is the artist? René François Ghislain Magritte, born November 21, 1898. He was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and boundaries of reality and representation.

When was this painted and what was Magritte trying to express? In 1929 a group of Surrealist painters that Magritte associated with, published some essays on the nature of art and poetry. Magritte wrote, “The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it’s just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture ‘This is a pipe’, I’d have been lying!”

Ron Rosenau writes: In other words, art cannot “circumscribe the essence” of a thing, nor can it ” capture the soul” or “freeze a moment in time”. The thing is always bigger than art, and yet art, too, is “a thing”.

Once we see art as just another thing, we can be freed from false promises associated with it (especially those related to realism and representational art), and from the temptation of idolatry. Once so freed, we can approach art simply, even naively, and find in the encounter an experience that can enrich our spiritual lives.

If “this is not a pipe”, then what is it?

What is so potentially “treacherous” about images?

Consider this scripture: Matthew 13:15 NRSV

For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,
and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn—
and I would heal them.’

Now, “What do you think?”

After you ponder this painting, and what the artist is saying with this painting, consider these additional paintings:

Paintings to Ponder