René Magritte (1898 – 1967, Belgium)
Considered as the father of the (Belgian) surrealism, René Magritte’s paintings challenge the observers’ preconditioned perceptions of reality. His mode of representation seems voluntarily neutral and academic, yet it helps highlights a powerful work that questions reality and brings a new meaning to familiar objects and things we took for granted. Magritte’s body of work has directly influenced Pop Art and contemporary artists like John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha or Andy Warhol.