✓ Smithsonian MagazineCulture & Curiosity
Magritte wrote 'This is not a pipe' to show a painting can't be the real thing
Magritte's point was that a painted pipe is not a pipe at all: you cannot smoke it, only observe a representation of one.
In 1929, Magritte painted a tobacco pipe and wrote beneath it 'This is not a pipe.' His point: no one can smoke a painting; it is only a representation of the object.
The Belgian Surrealist spent his career exploring that gap between things and their images. Gagosian gallery in London opens an exhibition on his legacy on September 24.
- 1929
- Painting date
- The Treachery of Images
- Title
- 1898 in Lessines, Belgium
- Born
- $121.2 million
- Auction record
Why it mattersMagritte's ideas about images shaped advertising, photography, and conceptual art; the $121.2 million his work has reached at auction signals that influence is still growing.
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