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Lot Essay
In L'explication, a mysterious Magrittean equation appears to be at work. On one side of this picture, a bottle and a carrot are shown together against the patterned background; on the other side is a fusion between the two, half carrot, half bottle, as though captured during the process of transformation. The crunchy organic carrot is melding with the hard glass of the bottle whose shape the vegetable echoes.
In this way, Magritte demonstrates the incredible mystery of the 'elective affinities' that he investigated and explored in the greatest works of his oeuvre: there is a crisp, almost diagrammatic elegance to this composition and conceit, and yet it remains a poetic vision that hints at the wondrous possibilities of even the most everyday objects that surround us.
L'explication is an exquisitely-rendered gouache dating from 1960, reprising a theme which originally appeared in a 1951 painting of the same title. Magritte's dealer Alexandre Iolas sold the painting the following year to the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio da Janeiro; it was subsequently destroyed in a fire. L'explication, the gouache reprisal of that earlier picture, features a number of key differences in the backdrop and the support.
Instead of the granite slab upon which the bottle, carrot and carrot-bottle had initially rested, here Magritte has shown them on the hard organic surface of wood, a material which appears to reinforce the mystery of the process that is taking place before our eyes. Similarly, Magritte has chosen to present the objects in the gouache against a bold, colourful background which contrasts heavily with the dark glass of the gleaming bottle, making the large-scale carrot that is emerging appear more mirage-like against the patterned surface. L'explication was one of a group of gouaches that Magritte created for an exhibition organised by Iolas at the Galerie Rive Droite at the beginning of 1960. In the original catalogue for that show, many of the works were listed as dating from 1959, including L'explication; however, in the catalogue raisonné compiled under the guidance of David Sylvester, it has been observed that Magritte himself wrote to Iolas at the end of 1959 explaining that he did not intend to undertake the work until the New Year (see D. Sylvester, ed., rené Magritte, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. IV, Antwerp, 1994, p. 222).
In this way, Magritte demonstrates the incredible mystery of the 'elective affinities' that he investigated and explored in the greatest works of his oeuvre: there is a crisp, almost diagrammatic elegance to this composition and conceit, and yet it remains a poetic vision that hints at the wondrous possibilities of even the most everyday objects that surround us.
L'explication is an exquisitely-rendered gouache dating from 1960, reprising a theme which originally appeared in a 1951 painting of the same title. Magritte's dealer Alexandre Iolas sold the painting the following year to the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio da Janeiro; it was subsequently destroyed in a fire. L'explication, the gouache reprisal of that earlier picture, features a number of key differences in the backdrop and the support.
Instead of the granite slab upon which the bottle, carrot and carrot-bottle had initially rested, here Magritte has shown them on the hard organic surface of wood, a material which appears to reinforce the mystery of the process that is taking place before our eyes. Similarly, Magritte has chosen to present the objects in the gouache against a bold, colourful background which contrasts heavily with the dark glass of the gleaming bottle, making the large-scale carrot that is emerging appear more mirage-like against the patterned surface. L'explication was one of a group of gouaches that Magritte created for an exhibition organised by Iolas at the Galerie Rive Droite at the beginning of 1960. In the original catalogue for that show, many of the works were listed as dating from 1959, including L'explication; however, in the catalogue raisonné compiled under the guidance of David Sylvester, it has been observed that Magritte himself wrote to Iolas at the end of 1959 explaining that he did not intend to undertake the work until the New Year (see D. Sylvester, ed., rené Magritte, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. IV, Antwerp, 1994, p. 222).