Rene Magritte Personal Values SoVA assignment Part 1

"If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream." -Rene Magritte

Rene Magritte was a Surrealist artist whose works, which were distortions of reality, inevitably led us to question the true significance of dreams in our lives and which side of reality (or non-reality) we live in. He was interested in juxtaposing the most unlikely objects together - the most unnatural scenario - in the most natural way possible to confuse the viewer for a moment as to which was real and which was not.

In Personal Values (Les Valeurs Personelles), 1952, Magritte employs this fascination with reality and dreams. He has painted a room where only 3 of its walls are visible in our view. It appears as if we are in the room itself, because of the realistic way the room has been painted. Realistic clouds adorn the walls of the room, making it seem like the room is floating in the sky. To me, this feels like Magritte's visual metaphor for "The sky's the limit", puns intended. Firstly, to take the common terminology literally, the sky, which appears boundless to us as we gaze up at it any morning, is in the painting the very boundaries of the room (The negative connotation). This literally shows that the sky is the limit. Secondly, we could view it in a more positive light - the sky appears to be a different world in which you could step out into any moment. As this world is partly hidden from our view, and all we see is the sky, we know that there is more out there and hence there is no apparent limit of this second world to us. (This I think seems to be more like what the artist was trying to bring across.)

The painting reflects a formality (its seemingly untouched neatness) and commonality (its being a bedroom, and the fact that there are cracks in the ceiling which needs re-plastering) which makes it seem quite ordinary. The Surrealistic influence is kept subtle, not in-your-face like Dali. The viewer has to delve deeper into meaning and symbolism in order to fathom the Surrealistic motivations behind the painting.

This room is painted in a very realistic style, making it strangely unnerving; things which seem to be most normal are made to look unusually big. At the leftmost corner is a carefully made-up bed with hardly any creases on its covers, to the extent that it appears almost plastic, furthering the sense of formality in the painting. The room could reflect the personality of its occupant. Its careful formality could show that the occupant is trying to cover up his true personality.

A gigantic comb which rests on the bed is also leaning against the wall. Its translucent quality has been painted to absolute precision. The fact that it rests upon the bed draws reference to its affinity with the bed - one rests his head upon the pillow on the bed, and afterwards uses the comb to neaten his tousled hair. This could also allude to body image, outward appearance.

Next to the bed is an armoire which doors hold mirrors, subject matter popular with the Surrealists, often used to represent psychological space and the realm of fantasy. The mirrors offer a glimpse of oneself  - as they reflect light back at the viewer. If one moves in front of a mirror, he will see his reflection. The armoire is also in the far corner of the room.The carpet which has shifted towards the armoire on the right side of the room also acts as a pathway for eye movement towards the armoire. Thus the armoire could hint at deep, internal reflection on one's priorities, values, actions, words and thoughts. At the same time, the mirrors of the armoire could also be viewed as windows or doors to another place, offering relief from a stiffly formal and mundane existence, an idea similar to the concept in CS Lewis' literary work The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950).

Atop the armoire is a man's shaving brush. The way it is perched precariously atop the armoire brings about a sense of anticipation, a tension in the still room as the viewer feels as if the brush is about to fall off the armoire, as though the cool sense of equilibrium present in the room is about to be upset. This could mean that focusing too much on outward appearance (hinted at by the exaggerated scale of the shaving brush, which is used for personal grooming) may result in instability of inward character, as seen from how the shaving brush is above the mirrors of the armoire. In a way, the mirrors of the armoire also could possibly represent the "doors" into the "soul" (personality) of the owner of the room as it offers us a glimpse of the entire room if the viewer were in the painting and could move around the room.

In front of the armoire is a bar of soap.This could show a concern with personal grooming and hygiene. Magritte did say he is less concerned with the meanings of objects than with their unlikely relations to one another when placed side by side in his paintings. Could he have employed any deep implication with a bar of soap? I for one cannot fathom it, although it could allude to the oppressed state (the curvature of the soap, like a helmet of sorts) of some people who desire to break out of a mold - like if some people view them as unfortunate, or in any negative light, they desire the freedom for such stains to be washed away by the soap, to be free from the judgmental eyes of society. 

Beside the soap there is a wine glass about the same size as the bed. Its curvaceous surface could suggest a feminine presence in the room.

Left of the wineglass, a matchstick lies on the carpet, out of place. It doesn't help that the warmer bright colours of the matchstick lie against the deep cool earth colours of the carpet and clash. The explanation says that it was probably Magritte's visual pun on an erotic French phrase, which is quite discomfiting to be honest. And since that's rather inappropriate for something so easily accessible to a generation of innocent youngsters all hungry for information (you never know when some five-year-old might happen to chance on Magritte, kids these days, I saw babies using their parents' iPads at our AEP exhibition last year in TTSH), let's provide them with something more delectable. I would rather have my own interpretation, which you will see centers more on practicality. The matchstick reminds me of a campfire - of survival, of the essentials of living. The matchstick could represent the desire to live, to survive, in an uncertain, precarious world (hinted at by the shaving brush seemingly about to fall from its place on the top of the armoire). Note, also, that the matchstick is the only object which lies so stably in equilibrium. (I mean - touch the bar of soap and it would rock. And no one can disagree that the matchstick lying on its side is less easy to topple than the wine glass beside it. (Back to basics in Physics.) ) Thus, the matchstick could represent an inherent desire (it is tucked deeply into the warm colours of the carpet) in humans to live in a world which at times might appear surreal, given the unfavourable situations that sometimes befall us, such that we sometimes question: Is this real? Am I dreaming? But we pinch ourselves and we realise that this is in very deed cold hard reality, but nonetheless our question has blurred the line and we still wonder, in our hearts. For the passage in our minds - the psychological possibility - that this might only be a dream has been opened with those questions which so plague us at times of distress, grief and even joy. To substantiate my point - the sturdy matchstick might represent the lighting of hope, of a steadfast flame, that when the storms of life inevitably come to the rooms, the inner chambers of our beings, we yet choose as our personal values to be firm and to hope for a better future.Thus may Magritte be dealing with the inward toils of human nature, and the room an outward depiction of an internal perspective. How much more noble, than the crass and heedless visual remark.