About Magritte – Mini Statue – The Red Model (1934)
The Red Model / Le Modele rouge was a Surrealist painting completed by Rene Magritte (1934, oil on canvas 60 x 45 cm). This clever Surrealist artwork shows a pair of feet becoming boots with shoelaces.
Magritte painted a couple versions of this painting. This version was completed in November 1935 and is now in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. It is the one executed with the most scrupulous care rendering the tactile qualities of flesh and leather.
René Magritte was one of the most famous surrealist painters of all time. His ability to challenge perception inspired many artists to come, such as Andy Warhol, Jan Verdoodt and Jasper Johns. Furthermore, his idiosyncratic vision of Surrealism has won over the hearts and minds of millions.
He worked across various media including painting, printmaking, sculpting, photography, and film. His depiction of normal, everyday objects rearranged in an unusual way allowed his viewers to take a deeper look at what was in front of them and realize what the image truly represented.
One of his most well-known pieces, The Treachery of Images exemplifies his ability to give new meanings to objects. It is an image of a pipe, and beneath it, a message that reads, “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”).
This ability to make the mundane strange and the known unknown has solidified Magritte’s talents in the art world. Eventually, it has profoundly affected the Conceptualist and Pop Art movements, to this very day.
