To those who tried to interpret his pictures, Magritte liked to answer "You are more fortunate than I am." Magritte's paintings are intended as an attack upon society's preconceived ideas and predetermined good sense. He considered his work successful when no explanation of causality of meaning can satisfy our curiosity.
The fear of being mystified, says Magritte, applies equally to painted images which have the power to provoke such fear. Sometimes an image can place its spectator under serious accusation.
A person who only looks for what he wants in painting will never find that which transcends his preferences. But, if one has been trapped by the mystery of an image which refuses all explanation, a moment of panic will sometimes occur. These moments of panic are what count for Magritte.
Magritte used painting for this purpose alone: "I think as though no one had ever thought before me."
La Reproduction interdite
1937
Oil on Canvas
81.5 x 65 cm [32 x 25.5 in]
Collection, Museum Boijmans Van Beunigen, Rotterdam
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