The Easel

Why Magritte was Like a Stand Up Comedian

Magritte was a master of image and, in particular, puzzling images. This nice essay (by a comedy writer) draws out the parallels between Magritte’s art and comedy. The argument is not that his paintings are necessarily funny but rather that the contradictions they portray are similar to the way a joke is structured. “It was Magritte’s genius to construct images that are awkwardly resilient to straightforward resolution”