Magritte - For Real @ MoMA

The mystifying & beguiling Belgian Surrealist painter, Rene Magritte, has been given a delightful exhibit at the MoMA.  "The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-38, is an assemblage of some of his most familiar & iconic works.  Then again, looks are deceiving; the point being, to really LOOK.  Magritte's work is both whimsical & macabre.  It is beautiful & repugnant.  It's disconcerting to have an eye looking back at you from a slice of ham on a plate.  The eyes whose corneas reflect celestial landscapes are haunting.  Take note of the painting of a young girl gouging her teeth into a bird. This evokes both pleasure and cruelty.  His paintings have a dreamlike quality and an eerie nightmarish pall.  Limbs and features morph into the bizarre.  Curtains both reveal & mask the unknown, captivating the viewer.  Matisse paints serene & bucolic landscapes and oceans & horizons on the verge of a tempest.   I'm enamored with his painting "The Lovers" where a couple are kissing between cloths covering their separate faces.  "The Human Condition" shows an easel with a landscape painting in front of a window which seems to fit into the outdoors like a piece in a puzzle.  This show is fun to experience & ponder.  Magritte demands we look at things we overlook and to really be observant.  Magritte's works are deceiving & magical.  Of course, what we perceive is ephemeral & forever changing.  I was bewitched, bothered & bewildered, for real.   I tip my bowler hat to Magritte.  My tip to you is not to miss this Surreal Show.