Cantor Art Museum Essay

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For this assignment, I chose to visit the Cantor Art Museum at Stanford. In this museum, there were multiple amazing exhibits, but the one I am going to focus on is one called The Conjured Life: The Legacy of Surrealism. While I walked through this exhibit, I was intrigued. Some of the pieces were very beautiful and artistic, while others were more repelling. All of the pieces were unique, and some were very eye catching. Some in particular made me stop and think about what the artist was trying to convey, as this type of art is not as straightforward. One piece in particular caught my eye. The oil painting on canvas “The Wonders of Nature” by Rene Magritte in 1953 depicts two statues in front of a beach with a ship sailing in the water behind them. The statues were …show more content…

Unlike the other pieces on display, at first glance this piece looks normal. It is very realistic, but when you look more deeply you can see the surreal aspects. The normality of it was actually what made me intrigued by it. It made me feel surprised because the rest of the surreal pieces were highly eccentric. I think this piece was meant to show the viewer that although things might appear ordinary, they have may have more to them that meets the eye. Also, because both of the aspects of this piece have something “reversed”, I think it is meant to “test” the viewer’s perception. The statues are reversed, making you question why things are always portrayed one way, when they could be represented another. Also, the only truly fantastical aspect of this painting is the ship, which I think is to symbolize that the depicted area is a fantastical place, not just one with odd looking sculptures. The museum gave some information on surrealism, telling me that these paintings were meant to “disrupt established Western Values of logic, reason, and idealism”. This is why I think Magritte wanted to have the viewer question his/her

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