René Magritte
The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe) (La trahison des images [Ceci n'est pas une pipe])1929

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Oil painting of a brown smoking pipe against a beige background, with cursive French text reading "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" below

Artist or Maker: René Magritte
Belgium, 1898-1967
Title: The Treachery of Images (This is Not a Pipe) (La trahison des images [Ceci n'est pas une pipe])
Place Made: Belgium
Date Made: 1929
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 23 3/4 × 31 15/16 × 1 in.
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Mr. and Mrs. William Preston Harrison Collection
Accession Number: 78.7
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: Modern Art
Curatorial Notes: 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.

Wall label, 2021.
Provenance: The artist (1898-1967), Paris and Brussels; [Galerie Le Centaure, Brussels]; sold in 1932 to E. L. T. Mesens (1903-1971), London; sold in 1957 to William (1919-1996) and Noma (1916-2006) Copley; [sold at auction in 1978 at Sotheby’s Parke-Bernet, New York May 17, 1978, Sale No. 4124, Lot 70]; to LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Polly Apfelbaum: Waiting for the UFOs (a Space Set Between a Landscape and a Bunch of Flowers). Kansas City, Missouri: Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 2019.
Lipinski, Lisa. René Magritte and the Art of Thinking. New York: Routledge, 2019.
Zweite, Armin. Arakawa: Bilder und Zeichnungen 1962-1981. München: Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 1981.
Zweite, Armin. Arakawa, Bilder und Zeichnungen 1962-1981. München: Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, 1981.
Claes, Marie, Paul Demets, Kurt De Boodt, Ann Geeraerts, Franz-W Kaiser. Roger Raveel: Retrospection. Brussels: Mercatorfonds, 2021.
Eleey, Peter, Robyn Farrell, Michael Govan, Rebecca Morse, James Rondeau, eds. Barbara Kruger: Thinking of You, I Mean Me, I Mean You. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Munich ; New York: DelMonico Books·D.A.P., 2021.
Wallin, Hans Erik, Uffe Harder, and Hugo Arne Buch, eds. René Magritte. Humlebaek: Louisiana, 1983.
Cherix, Christophe, Ana Torok, and Kiko Aebi. Ed Ruscha - Now Then: A Retrospective. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2023.

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