Magritte

This weekend I went to check out the Magritte show at LACMA with a friend from out of town. We both got the audio tour and I was really glad I did. The show was designed by artist John Baldessari and it definitely had a unique look. He put cloud patterned carpet on the floor and tiled a picture of freeways on the ceiling. There were other little touches that he did that related to the art in the show. Magritte is most well known for his man with the bowler hat. The show juxtaposed his work with other artists who were directly inspired by him as well as artists who worked in similar themes (such as using text and playing with scale). The audio tour included commentary by several contemporary artists whose work was included in the show. Interestingly, some of them deny being influenced by Magritte's work. I noticed that several of the pieces shown in the exhibit were from the private collections of contemporary artists.