The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe) (La trahison des images [Ceci n'est pas une pipe])

© C. Herscovici/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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misleading, irony, french, pipe, simple, surreal, writing, brown, black, tan
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The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe) (La trahison des images [Ceci n'est pas une pipe])

Belgium, 1929
Paintings
Oil on canvas
23 3/4 × 31 15/16 × 1 in.
Purchased with funds provided by the Mr. and Mrs. William Preston Harrison Collection (78.7)
Modern Art
Currently on public view:
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Since gallery displays may change often, please contact us before you visit to make certain this item is on view.

Label

The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe) is considered a Magritte masterpiece, a key Surrealist work, and an icon of modern art....
The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe) is considered a Magritte masterpiece, a key Surrealist work, and an icon of modern art. A treatise on the impossibility of reconciling word, image, and object, it challenges the convention of identifying an image of an object as the thing itself. Presented in the style of an advertisement, with the neat cursive text forming a slogan-like caption under the image of the pipe, the painting prompts the viewer to ponder its conflicting messages. Magritte’s enigmatic use of text influenced a younger generation of artists, including John Baldessari, Marcel Broodthaers, Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, and Ed Ruscha.

Exhibition wall label, 2021.
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