The Blank Signature
René Magritte
RENÉ MAGRITTE, 1965. OIL ON CANVAS.
Surrealists were delving the unconscious depths of their mind to create works that transcended reality, turning their dreams and visions of impossible worlds into visual actualities. Magritte, however, while participating in this element of the movement, was simultaneously exploring something altogether different. ‘The Blank Signature’ is not about the visions of the subconscious but instead about the inner workings of it. An optical illusion of the highest order - at first glance it is a simple scene, masterfully rendered, but on the second something seems off. Our brain constructs the picture we assume is there, that of a woman riding her horse through a forest, partially obscured by trees. Instead, the horse is bisected by nothingness, exists simultaneously in front of and behind the plane it rides on. We do not need painting to show us the world of our dreams, Magritte seems to say with this work, when the mind already constructs the impossible.