MAGNOLIA ｡PETER PARKER [DISCONTINUED]

01. RENÉ MAGRITTE

chapter one; rené magritte

"René Magritte was born in Hainaut, Lessines, Belgium on the twenty-first of November in eighteen-ninety-eight. Before his death on the fifteenth of August, nineteen-sixty-seven, he was and still is known as the most celebrated Belgian artist. Some of his works include The Treachery of Images, The Son of Man, The Lovers and Golconda. As you can see, Magritte primarily focused on Surrealism, though he dabbled in Cubism, Post-Impressionism and Modern Art."

"What painting is this?"

"That," Maggie began, pointing to the canvas covered in a variety of shiny oil paints. She smiled a little as she admired it, seeing the delicate marks that had been left where the artist had painted. "Is called 'The Menaced Assassin'. He painted this for his first solo exhibition in nineteen-twenty-seven. This work is one of Magritte's largest and most theatrical creations. Like plenty of the Surrealists at the time, Magritte was a fan of the pre-World War one crime fiction series, Fantômas. He borrowed the positioning of the two detectives' figures bordering the doorframe from the Le Mort Qui Tue, a film from the series that was first released in the early nineteen hundreds. It was Magritte's ambition to create a equivalently engaging and extravagant world on the canvas."

The tourists surrounding the young girl were intrigued by her extensive knowledge regarding the Belgian painter, and Maggie's eyes trailed across the crowd, landing on one of the curators by the entrance of the exhibition. He sent her a thumbs up, and she smiled slightly, feeling her anxiety settle a little. Her trembling hands were laced in front of her torso, and her mouth was slightly dry.

"You sure know your stuff, kid." One of the older tourists muttered, and Maggie nervously laughed, nodding in acknowledgement. She was completely out of her comfort zone, but the fact that she got to ramble about her favourite painters made the job a little easier.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." She responded softly, earning a few chuckles from the group. Tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, she smiled politely. "Feel free to look around the exhibition, I'll be wandering around if you have any further questions."

The tour group muttered a chorus of 'thanks' and dispersed throughout the Magritte exhibition. Maggie suppressed a sigh and straightened out her work t-shirt. She held out her hand to check the time on her watch, and pursed her lips when she saw that there was still an hour before she could go home.

"What's your favourite painting?" A voice caught Maggie's attention, and her heart stopped in her chest. She wasn't expecting someone to ask a question so soon. She looked up to see a pretty middle-aged woman in glasses smiling down at her.

"Oh," Maggie straightened her posture and forced a smile, reached to the wall and picking up one of the pamphlets. She flicked through it and showed the woman when she found the picture she was looking for. "My favourite's called  'La Bataille de l'Argonne', or 'The Battle of the Argonne'. I, uh, like it because Magritte portrays the idea that both a rock and a cloud can appear weightless, I guess. Also, the fact that both are before a calm and beautiful landscape, the art can essentially transport us into other realms in a state of total serenity, outside time."