Great Artwork While High: Rene Magritte

He’s the guy with the hats. If you know what that means, you know who I am talking about. Rene Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist.

“Crescent Moon”

I’m an art fan, but not a goon. I won’t tempt trolls by trying to wax (pun most intentional) intellectual, but I do know this much. He was inspired by impressionist artists and he makes uber trippy shit to stare at when you’re faded. He is cut from the same mold as Escher and Warhol. Two more cats us stoners just can’t lay off.

Though I learned his name in college, it turns out I knew Magritte’s work as a child. Remember the visual eye candy of Robin William’s film Toys? A lot of those imaginative sets were heavily influenced by Rene Magritte, particularly a break-in scene, featuring Robin Williams and Joan Cusack in a music video hoax.

Speaking of videos, here’s a great 5 minute one highlighting Magritte’s work:

There is even the dance video, with you guessed it, the hats. Magritte was fascinated with perception and representation.

Nothing speaks to this and to tokers more than his famous piece Ceci n’est pas une pipe. Magritte painted us a pipe and then told us it was not a pipe. Well, it wasn’t was it? It was just a representation. He was trippy like that, ya see what I mean? Speaking of pipes…

“Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (“This is not a pipe”)

Check out other posts from Weedist’s Great Artwork While High series