#584 The Shadow & Its Shadow

Where does one start & the
other finish? & surely they're
mispositioned — she should
be behind him, the proverbial
power behind the throne, as it
were. Or should she? After all,
she was in front of him so often
as he painted her — at the piano,
smoking a cigarette, in the nude, as
she posed for him for more than forty
years. She twelve, he fifteen when they
first met. Married seven years later when
they met again. Side by side this time, a mut-
ual shadow. Changing positions over the next
four decades. Until his death; & for her twenty
shadowless years, only shades, & the paintings
on the walls. Plus that unfinished one on an easel.






photo of René & Georgette Magritte by Paul Nougé. Brussels, 1932.

#583 The Intelligence

There is a scene in David Lynch's
Twin Peaks which replicates the
layout offered here. Not quite
the same — Lynch's characters 
seem to have more intelligence 
than these stereotypical burglars,
& the three-branched candelabra

that supports the women's heads
has been done away with & re-
placed by a minimal chorus line
of pink-clad busty Busby Berkeley
beauties. Add to that that the ex-
terior has been exorcised in the
TV shot. Is purely backstage, with

no window opening out onto an 
industrial landscape tinged in
pink, but it remains a Magritte
concept. & that is what the in-
telligence analysts seek to learn
from, the insights of the man
who brought the unreal to life.

#582 Image with a Green House 1944

In times of war, even
the mighty violincello
feels a need to hide.

Such a pity that they
didn't choose a more
subtle neighborhood

in which to conceal
themselves.

#581 The White Race 1937

No breasts, but two noses. We've
seen them before — or at least a
singular one. Then androgynous;
but with the accompaniments here
are much more feminine. It's the 
lips that give the separate pieces
gender, as they bridge the noses. 
Apart from those, one eye & one
ear. Not quite Lord Nelson, but
the ambition is there, & they're
gathered together on a navy blue
background. The whole kept out 
of the outside by a golden frame.

#580 Trois nus dans un intérieur

A girl's night in, or so
it seems. There's a movie
about that, but not about
life in a cubist setting. A
phrase from the movie —
"together we make up the 
perfect woman" — seems
at first look to have little 
relevance here, & yet the
setting has perfection in-
corporated in it. Light & 
shadow within the space.
A table on which cups are 
set. A bowl of fruit. Com-
fortable with their own &
the others' bodies. An an-
gularity to them that does
not seem to pierce the in-
timacy that fills the room. 

#579 The Castle of the Pyrenees, defaced

A painting in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem by the Belgian artist René Magritte
has been damaged by a 5-year-old boy wielding a pine cone.
CNN: 6.12.2026

Battlements on top, the rock beneath on which it's built, the ample space between the rock & the sea below —
should be enough. But in air is light as.

The rock, carrying its castle cargo, drifts eastward across the Mediterranean until it runs aground.
Because of its uniqueness, is placed in a space available in a museum in Jerusalem. Is held there,
exhibited, bereft of protective glass.

Years pass. Then one day a boy picks up a pine cone in the museum garden, wonders if the magical
assemblage inside that he & his grandmother have come to see will withstand something more than
a human viewing.

Or maybe thinks the painting needs a symbolic addition of the real to make it complete. The
pine cone he is still carrying, attached like a brooch to the painting.

The three AI images are from the museumnews Instagram account

#578 A Storm

It is a platform in space. High-
lighted, to further differentiate 
it from the dark abyss that laps 
its edge. There are few stars a-
bout, almost as an afterthought, 
even though they are what would
be expected in this environment. 
What is surprising are the blocks — 

buildings without windows? — 
that dominate this space in space. 
There are also a few multicolored 
clouds around, drifting above & 
between the building blocks. Seems
like a storm might be brewing.

#577 Sentimental Colloquy (1946)

Dans le vieux parc solitaire et glacé, 
Deux formes ont tout à l’heure passé.
Paul Verlaine: Le Colloque Sentimental
Cloaks keep the bilboquets
warm. The gouache is oblique,
which means no light passes

through, which means it makes
it seem even colder. Even in
death, even depicted as andro-

gynous, they can still be recog-
nized as lovers. It is those blue 
eyes that give that fact away.

#576 Forethought (1943)

I have brought you this tree
of flowers. It is one I had
prepared earlier, before I
knew your tastes, & what
colors you liked, & did
perfumes or particular
scents play havoc with
your sensors. Some may
regard this as exemplary
forethought on my part.
I prefer to see it as cover-
ing all the bases as best as
one can in a time of war.

#575 Une Panique au Moyen Âge (2)

Nous sommes les jongleurs sans tête. Nous
avons travaillé ensemble si longtemps 
que nos corps finissent par fusionner.

La plupart du temps, on arrive à garder 
le contrôle ; mais parfois, dans un
environnement inconnu, on perd

le nord. On panique, les aveugles ne 
peuvent plus suivre les autres aveugles.

We are the headless jongleurs. Have
worked together for so long our
bodies are known to merge.

Most times we can keep our shit
together; but, sometimes, in un-
familiar surroundings, we lose

our way. We panic, the blind no
longer able to follow the blind.

#574 Nocturne (2)

A curtain is drawn back
to expose a house that is
burning. It is night, which
makes the flames more
vivid. A bilboquet that
thinks it's a cello watches 
on but makes no attempt
to help or to cover up the
scene by drawing the curt-
ain closed. A bird cut from
some similar cloth is flying 
away. It has nowhere to go.

#573 Sometimes / the name / of an object . . .

Why did I see coffins where Manet saw pale figures?
René Magritte, in a letter to Michel Foucault.
Simplicity is a great charm in letter-
writing. Everything is solidly anchored 
within a pedagogic space, where a word 
can take the place of an object in reality. 
The gaze encounters words as if they had 

strayed to the heart of things. To cumber 
epistles with quotations, similes, flowery 
language, & a stilted, pedantic style, is 
in bad taste, much like a text written by
a zealous instructor. A phrase may, by 

the addition or omission of one word, 
or by the alteration of one punctuation 
mark, convey to the reader an entirely 
different idea from that intended by 
the writer. In the thin space separating 

the mirror's polished, reflection capt-
uring surface & the opaque surface of 
the wall that catches only shadows, there 
is nothing. Says all that is necessary, in 
plain, distinct language, & says no more.


Sources:
This Is Not a Pipe, by Michel Foucault
The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette (1860), by Florence Hartley

#572 La Parure De L’Orage

This is a landscape, even though
the sea is the backdrop & the front
is taken up by what looks like a red
wood floor. On which gather cut-
out characters, painted, but made 
to look like cut paper collage. Hard-
edged despite the indentations. Hard 
to tell which way they are looking, 
what they are there for. Gathered 
to observe the ocean, or gathered 
to talk among themselves while 
the wind whips around them & 
probably whips their words away? 
Or have they come to revel in dis-
aster? It's somewhat difficult to 
see, but there's a ship out there, 
wrecked by the violence of the 
storm, deposited onto the shore.

#571 Le Cicérone (1948)

The temperance advocates come
knocking at my door but I haven't
had a drink for days. Nor do I
feel like one. Sorry to disappoint.

The pentecostal proselytizers pause
on the pathway. I instantly recog-
nize the pairing, can see more pairs 
over their shoulders, say no thanks 

politely to them before they have a
chance to open their mouths. & they, 
inured to rejection, offer their equally 
polite blessings & walk quietly away. 

Then the politicians, the outliers only — 
independents who seek to save the
planet; or those far to the right, want-
ing to stop immigration or gender e-

quality or renewable energy sources. 
The mainstream parties mainly leave 
us alone. Impersonal. Letterbox drops 
& billboards. Polling booth handouts.

In the early evening the cicerone comes
calling. Said: "Saw you had a lot of
visitors today, thought you might like
to know their antecedents. What drives

them, what is behind their focus on a
singular cause whether it be bigotry 
or hope or a need for an answer as to 
why the world turned out the way it

has, & how it might be rearranged to
match their vision of it." "Come in" I
said "& get comfortabable. Will make
you a coffee. Going to be a long night."

#570 L'âge des merveilles

First, the assumption. No, not
that of the Blessed Virgin Mary 
but it is possible that one or other
of the two women depicted here
may be her. Underscored by the 
fact that the one looking out of 
the painting has had her whole 
reproductive area replaced by 

clockwork allows for the pos-
sibility of a birth being brought 
about by a mechanical assembly 
line with no human intervention. 
Then the second assumption, that
both women are the same, down 
to the last cog, even if the other
can't be seen face on, this time a

mirror image, unlike that later 
painting, La Reproduction Interdite. 
& the easel that supports the pain-
ting within the painting shares a
commonality with the clockwork 
of the models but is coming apart.
That it can still support the pain-
ting is a small miracle. That it is

falling to pieces may also presage 
some further deterioration in all
the paricipants in the painting. Ex-
cept for the desert in that painting 
on the easel which is still fresh, 
awaiting the delivery of the fish 
or bird that will eventually be fly-
ing above it in a later incarnation. 

#569 La Bonne Foi (3)

 


This is not a pipe but a must-
ache that has become somewhat 
misaligned in his climb out of 
the abyss. Not that you would 
know where he's been or what 
he's been through. Ever the well-
dressed Mr. Everyman, ready 
for work in the CBD. No flecks 

of paint to indicate an alternate 
occupation, no tension in the eyes
to reflect the poisonous flowers
that he so recently saw. & what
perfumes were present in his
travails unable to be identified
because his nose is hidden. So
much to be taken in good faith.

#568 Donna (1923)

As if merged with a saraswati
veena, an instrument named

after the Hindu goddess of
learning & the arts, & then

both her & her surrounds
painted in primary colors. An

impressive conglomeration that
surely deserves a more striking

name than Donna.

#567 The Art of Conversation (1963)

In this split & drifting space, strange 
bonds are knit. In a landscape of batt-
ling giants or of the beginning of the 
world, two tiny persons are speaking.
The art of conversation consists in the 

exercise of two fine qualities — never 
interrupt any one who is speaking; &
overlook the deficiencies of others 
when conversing with them. Men, at 
last reduced to silence, commune with

the signification of things, allow them-
selves to be touched by enigmatic, in-
sistent words that come from elsewhere.
Words are not bound directly to other 
pictorial elements. They are merely in-

scriptions on blobs & shapes. But in 
this context, words do not replace mis-
sing objects, occupy no hollow spaces.
A lady of true refinement will always
give your words candid consideration.

Sources:
This Is Not a Pipe, by Michel Foucault
The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette (1860), by Florence Hartley

#566 The Empty Picture Frame

The wall is empty apart from
an empty picture frame. Ex-
cept. The frame is not empty— 
or so it seems. Contains a slice 
of wall, but not the wall that
surrounds it, that it hangs up

on. Instead an exceptionally 
detailed rendition of rendered
brick that seems out of place
inside a house, but could be
most any part of the exterior
cladding. Carefully transported

& hung above the wainscoting.
The outside inside, the invis-
ible made visible. What need
of the signature that rests in
the upper righthand corner
to know whose work this is?

#565 L'Invitée

He slept badly. Woke half-
way through the night &,
though no one had asked
him to, threw the window
out the window. It hung



there, waiting for more
instructions. He had no-
thing further to add, just
wondered why the room
had suddenly become cold.