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Faculte Des Lettres René Magritte. a Critique Of N 6300.6 UL FACULTE DES LETTRES T/ ( RENÉ MAGRITTE. A CRITIQUE OF REIFICATION MICHELINE JÔEMETS Mémoire présenté pour F obtention du grade de maître ès arts (M.A.) ÉCOLE DES GRADUÉS UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL AVRIL 1991 (c) droits réservés de Micheline Jôemets 1991 SUMMARY This essay examines René Magritte’s works from 1925 to 1933. It posits that Magritte’s paintings underwent two distinct stages of resistance to commodity relations, one around 1925-1927, the other starting in 1933 with the development of a work process known as objet-réponse. It suggests that the two stages of resistance to commodity relations were founded on opposite modes of construction. The works dating from the early years are understood as being the result of a constant effort to negate the structural principles of the 'organic’ work of art, while the works dating from 1933, are understood as aiming for the creation of a new value system, one which transcends the rational and quantitative norms imposed by reified society. Cet ouvrage examine les oeuvres de René Magritte datant de 1925 à 1933. L’auteur considère les oeuvres crées au cours de ces années comme appartenant à deux moments distincts d’un même cheminement critique des relations marchandes. Le premier moment est situé de 1925 à 1927, le second en 1933, au seuil de la découverte d’un processus de formation d’images appelé "objet- réponse". Ces deux périodes sont considérées comme étant basées sur des modes de construction opposés. Les oeuvres datant de la première période sont perçues comme étant le résultat d’une volonté de nier les principes structurels de l’oeuvre "organique". Les oeuvres construites d’après le modèle de T objet- réponse sont, quant à elles, interprétées en tant que tentative de transcender les limites strictement quantitatives et rationelles imposées à tout objet par les rapports marchands. Cette poursuite vers un dépassement de la valeur d’échange s’établit grâce à la construction de liens et d’images qui débordent toutes considérations pratiques. Signatures: Micheline Jôemets, Elliott Moore; _ I would like to thank all those who have given me their support during the time of research leading up to the completion of this work: Elliott Moore, Mariette G arceau and Elmar Jôemets, Viivi Jôemets and Pierre Jôemets, Valérie Perrault and Barry Holms, Jacinta Ferrari and Calvin Meiklejohn, Angèle Boulay m TABLE OF CONTENTS SUMMARY .........................................................................................................I TABLE OF CONTENTS .............................................................................. Ill LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS...................................................................... V INTRODUCTION ................................................................................. 1 I. MAGRITTE, 1925 TO 1927 ..........................................................4 Jeune fille ayant une rose à la place du coeur..................4 Le Jockey perdu ........................................................................ 8 The organic and non organic work of art...........................12 The 1927 show......................................................................... 18 A neutral style .........................................................................20 The use of space......................................................................22 Collages .................................................................................... 26 The notion of space: Magritte and Brecht...........................28 Le retour à l’ordre and Magritte’s destruction of spatial and semantic unity.................................. 31 A reaction to modernism........................................................38 H. THE YEARS 1928 TO 1930 .................................................... 44 A move to Paris ......................................................................44 A shift in tension from space to objects............................. 47 Les Mots et les images .......................................................... 48 Vague figures have a meaning as necessary and perfect as precise ones .......................................................... 49 A word can take the place of an object in reality .... 51 The irrational combination of objects as a criticism of reification.................................................... 52 a) Lukâcs’ theory of reification................................ 53 The construction of an image through negation ...............57 HI. THE DISCOVERY OF THEOBJET-RÉPONSE - 1933 . 61 Les Affinités électives ............................................................. 61 Les Vacances de Hegel.......................................................... 63 The two versions...................................................................... 66 The relationship between title and work..............................68 Use value, exchange value, poetic value..............................71 The objects ...............................................................................74 Isolation as a means of intensifying effect............................75 Détournement............................................................................76 The objet-réponse as a form of détournement ................... 79 The inclusion of space in the formation of objet-réponse......................................................................... 83 La Condition humaine . ...........................................................84 CONCLUSION............................................................... 89 BIBLIOGRAPHY.....................................................................................i ILLUSTRATIONS.............................................................................. vii V LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1. Jeune fille ayant une rose à la place du coeur. 1924. Oil on canvas, 55 x 40 cm. Mrs Magritte collection. Fig. 2. Le Jockey perdu. 1926. Oil on canvas, 63,5 x 73,5 cm. Mrs. R. Michel collection. Fig. 3. Femmes. 1922. Oil on canvas, 70,2 x 100,2 cm. Private collection. Fig. 4. Femmes. 1923. Oil on canvas, 100 x 70 cm. Private collection. Fig. 5. La Traversée difficile. 1926. Oil on canvas, 80 x 65,3 cm. Private collection. Fig. 6. Le Supplice de la vestale. 1926-1927. Oil on canvas, 97,5 x 74,5 cm. Isy Brachot Gallery, Brussels-Paris. Fig. 7. Le Jockey perdu. 1926. Paper, wash, ink, 39,5 x 60 cm. Harry Torczyner collection, New York Fig. 8. Untitled. 1926. Paper, wash, ink, 55 x 40 cm. Private collection. Fig. 9. Untitled. 1926. Paper, wash, ink, 40 x 55,5 cm. Private collection. Fig. 10. Le Groupe silencieux. 1926. Oil on canvas, 120 x 80 cm. Isy Brachot Gallery, Brussels-Paris. Fig. 11. Entracte. 1927. Oil on canvas, 114 x 161 cm. Private collection. Fig. 12. Le Double secret. 1927. Oil on canvas, 114 x 162,5 cm. Private collection. Fig. 13. Les Mots et les images. La révolution surréaliste. Paris, n° 12-15, 1929, p 32-33. VI Fig. 14. La Sortie de l’école. 1927. Oil on canvas, 75 x 100 cm. Claude Spaak collection. Fig. 15. Le Sens propre. 1928-1929. Oil on canvas, 73 x 54 cm. Robert Rauschenberg collection, New York. Fig. 16. Le Corps bleu. 1928-1929. Oil on canvas, 81 x 65 cm. Mr. & Mrs. Orvalet collection, Brussels. Fig. 17. Le Miroir vivant. 1926. Oil on canvas, 54 x 73 cm. Mrs Sonabend-Binder collection, Brussels. Fig. 18. L’Usage de la parole. 1928. Oil on canvas, 54 x 73 cm. Rudolf Zwimer Gallery, Kôln. Fig. 19. La Trahison des images. 1929. Oil on canvas, 62,2 x 81 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Fig. 20. Les Affinités électives. 1933-1934. Oil on canvas, 41 x 33 cm. Etienne Périer collection, Paris. Fig. 21. Les Vacances de Hegel. 1958. Oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm. Isy Brachot Gallery, Brussels-Paris. Fig. 22. Les Vacances de Hegel. 1959. Oil on canvas, 48 x 38 cm. Private collection. Fig. 23. Le Modèle rouge. 1935. Oil on canvas, 55,9 x 45,8 cm. Collection Musée National d’Art Moderne; Centre National d’Art et Culture Georges Pompidou, Paris. Fig. 24. Letter written by René Magritte to Suzi Gablik, May 19, 1958. Fig. 25. Le Mariage de minuit. 1926-1927. Oil on canvas, 139,5 x 105,5 cm. Musées Royaux des beaux-arts de Belgique, Brussels. Fig. 26. La Réponse imprévue. 1933. Oil on canvas, 82 x 54,5 cm. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. vn Fig. 27. La Condition humaine. 1934. Oil on canvas, 100 x 81 cm. Private collection, Paris. Fig. 28. Le Chant de Corage. 1937. Oil on canvas, 66,2 x 54,9 cm. Scottish National Gallery of Art. Fig. 29. L’Empire des lumières. 1954. Oil on canvas, 146 x 114 cm. Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. 1 INTRODUCTION In this text I propose an interpretation of René Magritte’s works as a criticism of reification. Reification is the concretization of inter-human relations into materially definable instances and thence into commodities. Georg Lukâcs defined reification as follows: Its basis is that a relation between people takes on the character of a thing and thus acquires a "phantom objectivity," an autonomy that seems so strictly rational and all-embracing as to conceal every trace of its fundamental nature: the relation between people.1 As a direct consequence of the division of labour and of specific dominant relations regulating the work force in the interest of a ruling class, a perfectly closed and quantitative system developed under capitalism which, by the end of World War I, had led to an extreme segmentation of life and had reduced it to a series of commercial transactions. The fundamental social relations which were at the heart of the production
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