Full Flush 6

When I was in Year 6 we took a school trip to Canberra, Australia’s capital.?

One of our stops was the National Gallery of Australia. It was there I saw a painting of a nicely dressed couple posing for a pic in the countryside. The couple's heads were covered by white fabric.

I don’t know why the painting stopped me in my tracks, but it did. I stood there, looking at it, trying to figure it out. My 11-year-old brain couldn’t. I didn’t know paintings could affect people in this way. All I knew was that I hadn’t seen anything like it before: it was unsettling and beautiful.

The painting was The Lovers by René Magritte*, the Belgian surrealist artist. I later left the National Gallery with a book from the gift shop that had The Lovers on its front cover.?

This past weekend I went to the new Magritte exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW.?

I saw The Lovers again. Something that struck me this time, 26 years on, was its size. In my memory, the painting was larger than life—a work of imposing scale. In reality, it fits comfortably on a gallery pillar. The impact of the memory had distorted the size of the work in my mind.?

Not that size matters. The Lovers still beguiles me in 2024. And after some two-and-a-half decades of living, I now have the pleasure of baggage to complicate my interpretation of any and all artworks: in the case of The Lovers, I get to project my own intimacy issues and concealed desires onto the canvas. There's nothing quite like staring at two cloth-draped heads to help you get inside your own.

I think the painting hits me so hard—and apologies to the enigmatic Magritte for even giving an explanation—for the same reason all his works appeal and endure: because they challenge us to consider whether we really know anyone or anything.?What's your partner hiding? Is that a pipe or a picture? Can you trust your eyes?

The exhibition features more than 100 works, produced over four decades. All the Magritte trademarks are there: the men in bowler hats, the pipes, the clouds, the green apples. And all of it is mischievous and mysterious. As you make your way through the exhibition, you will think and laugh (not necessarily in that order). First at the paintings themselves. Then at the fact we live in a time that's as surreal as what's on the gallery walls—an era where truth is slippery and reality difficult to process.?????

I dunno what floats your boat but I like having my brain penetrated by paintings that test how I perceive words, images, and ideas. If you’re also partial to people who use their bristles to pose gnawing questions instead of offer easy answers, pay René a visit. It’s a beautiful mindfuck.

*The Lovers (1928) is a series by Magritte. Below is The Lovers I, which is the painting I (first) saw in Canberra.

Cover illo by Rachel Driessen.