Rene Magritte

Born on the 21st of November 1898 and died on the 15th August in 1967, Magritte was a Belgian surreal artist who became famous for his work during his 50s.

He was influential in the transformation of surrealism art including the pop art movement and his own work he created, having a distinct style.

Most of his work takes normal everyday objects and rearranges the figures, backgrounds, locations so the viewer takes a deeper look at the image to understand what is truly being presented.

"The Treachery of Images" was painted when Magritte was 30 years old. The picture shows a pipe with the text under it of "Ceci n'est pas une pipe." meaning "This is not a pipe" since it is an image of one and not an actual physical pipe.
It creates a three way paradox out of the notion that objects correspond to words and images, it sometimes given as an example of 'meta messaged' conveyed by 'paralanguage', comparing with 'Korzyski's' "The word is not a thing" and "The map is not the territory".

The Empire of Light

"The Empire of Lights" was a series of oil canvas paintings that were painted between 1953 and 1954. They show the 'paradoxical' image of a daytime time sky with a night time street below it that was lit by a single street light. The series of paintings actually inspired a scene in the horror film in 1973 "The Exorcist".