Cartoonist Grant Snider is composing a new series at Medium called “Who Needs Art?” His first piece discusses the Belgian surrealist René Magritte. Snider writes:
René Magritte is not my favorite painter. His Surrealist visions are smooth and perfectly rendered, but they lack the bold color and shadowy mystery of say, a Giorgio de Chirico canvas. Still, he is perhaps the most successful artist at achieving the purpose of the Surrealist movement, as stated by André Breton : “to resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality.” By favoring direct representation of ethereal imagery over stylistic innovation, his works feel less like pieces of art than objective accounts of lucid dreams. And all those faceless men in suits and bowler hats are decidedly creepy.
I don’t think that I’d mind having Magritte as a neighbor. I’d love to have Bob Ross as one. What artist, living or dead, would you like to live next to?