Act of Violence

Rene Magritte was a Belgian artist who produced several oil paintings and among them is The Act of Violence.

His paintings revolved around abstract images and nature. He had great ability to combine geometrical shapes, abstract descriptions and showcase nature in one image.

The Act of Violence was created in 1932. It was a period that Europe was experiencing the Second World War. At the same time, there was recession due to the economic downturn brought about by the conflict.

His paintings depicted what was happening in the day and the desire to have peace in the land. Act of Violence was an oil painting done on canvas as part of Rene’s ways of trying to depict peace and tranquillity amidst the violence that was going on at the time.

On the image, instead of the sky that is expected to be seen through the window, it is brought in as a solid block that seems to be inside of a building.

Through the arched window of the building that the artist has put us in, we see a building on the other side, but the windows are the only things that are visible in the story structure.

At the bottom of the arched door is a solid spherical block with a line that seems to cut through the centre. On the right side of the image is a panel where a painting of something like a torso of the human female body is painted and placed on the floor.

The floor is depicted as a fabricated surface that resembles a wooden one but being in colour.

In the painting, Rene Magritte tries to bring out a different perception of reality amidst the violence. The showcasing of the blue skies in a block shows peace.

Nevertheless, the lack of it has frozen the sky into a block. The Human torso was to showcase the beauty we have as people. However, the war wasted out the beauty that there was in people.

Rene transcended reality to bring out the deeper mysteries of life with an amazing magical success. In all his painting, he used bizarre forms and created fantastic creatures to bring his point home. The artist defied common sense to bring a new twist to conceived notions of daily life.