Rene Margritte is a Belgium surrealist artist who is well known for his thought provoking images often of normal objects in an unusual context, he gave familiar objects a new and different meaning .  Context defines the meaning of a work of art. Rene’s work influenced pop, minimal and conceptual art.

One of his most well known pieces of work is a painting of a pipe.  The painting is of a model pipe with a plain background that looks as though it is a model for a tobacco store advertisement. Bellow the pipe it says  “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” which literally translated means this is not a pipe.  Rene argued that it was not a pipe it was a painting of a pipe . When he  was once asked about this image, he replied that of course it was not a pipe, just try to fill it with tobacco. This links in with one of Picasso’s famous quotes, “we all know that Art is not truth. Art is a like that makes us realise the truth.” This quote and Rene’s work makes us question the difference between reality and representation.

Magritte painted The Treachery of Images when he was 30 years old. These images are still relevant today are currently on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art .They fit in with the exam title Truth, Fantasy or Fiction because they make us questions the reality of art and how much fiction is involved in the process of making a piece of work. The difference between a real pipe and a painting of a pipe and reality of them or any other object is something that I hadn’t thought about yet, however from researching this in more detail I have come to the conclusion that all Art including photography is a representation or an interpretation of something no matter how alike it looks compared to the real thing.