Viewed in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in Fall 2013.

Based on museum audio guide. The number of each painting corresponds to the actual item number in the museum.

200. Time is a River without Bank

Up till now I still think of this painting by Chagall in his early period as the most poetic and romantic one in this exhibition. Perhaps this is also why the museum placed it at the front of the hall. In this painting, we see a wide and peaceful river which of course represents Chagall’s hometown; while the flying fish is his father. Chagall himself and his wife, Bella, which are the only two “live” figures in the picture, sit at the corner, holding each other and cherishing the moment being together. This painting is about time, memory and loss, as said by the commentary, which I cannot agree more. Time is like a river, which is always moving and never stops. The grandfather clock in the middle, which is a more obvious symbol of time, in my opinion, is more of a implication of the objectiveness about time and we as human beings have to sit aside to either embrace or withstand the memory and loss that the times brings to us.

201. The Lovers

To understand this painting, it is important to know that bouquet was rare in Russia but plenty in Paris back in 1930s. This helps us understand the inner passion and spiritual energy that drive Chagall to grow and grows his flowers to essentially the whole canvas. The background color of this image is similar to the last one, and also from the lower right-hand side we see the houses the sheep representing Chagall’s hometown and his nostalgia while living in Paris and enjoying his sweet life at the same time. The contrast between these two color palettes and the emotions behind them make this bouquet look so special and joyful.

202. Untitled (Old Man with Beard)

203. Study for the Revolution

204. Solitude

205. The Fall of the Angel

206. Obsession

208, Exodus

209. Calvary

210. Descent from the Cross

211. Christ in the Night

212. The Flayed Ox

213. Soul of the City

214. The Wedding Candles

Based on museum audio guide. The number of each painting corresponds to the actual item number in the museum.

651. The Lost Jockery

The black curtains on the sides of the canvas remind us what we see behind is actually something not real (even surreal?). In the center of the “stage”, we have Magritte (should be himself, right?) riding a horse, seems running very fast but looks like not going anywhere. The standing “trunks” is actually bilboquets – a French toy and Magritte repeatedly used this form in his early works.

652. Portrait of Paul Nouge

Paul Nouge was a Belgian composer and he was a close friend of Magritte. In this painting Magritte challenged the convention view that portrait should be singular. The two Pauls look almost identical but with tiny differences – the shades of foreheads, one’s hand was cropped out of the canvas, etc. We believe from Magritte’s view, neither of them is Paul Nouge and both are representations.

653. The Secret Player

Again, we see the curtain and bilboquets. But here in front of us is an even weird and surreal world, with two players and a woman in a closet whose size is smaller than usual. What is interesting about this work is – it seems there are two sources of light. Obviously one is coming from left to the right (you can tell from the reflection of the bilboquets) and the other one, which sheds light on the woman’s face, is less to be aware of. This is a painting without a narrative and we can only explore the meaning and the truth simply by looking at it.

655. The Titanic Days

This one is disturbing – not only because it shows a man fighting with a woman but more than that we see the two bodies are forced to be in one plane. The three-dimension conventional pictorial space is destroyed.

656. Attempting the Impossible

Magritte and his wife. This can be regarded as the most literal interpretation of what a painter does – just apply paints – there is nothing more mystical, mysterious, and metaphysical about it. This also reflects the Surrealists’ attack on painting as a medium itself at the very beginning and what Magritte was trying to bring us here is the initial state of painting, without being commercialized, related to religion or something else, just paint. On another perspective, this painting also reminds us of Pygmalion, the Greek mythological character that brings his beloved sculpture to life.

657. The False Mirror

Unfortunately this is the only one painting that I knew before I came to this exhibition (but not knowing it is from Magritte). The caption of this work makes us to think about, and problematize that optical vision is limited. What you see is not necessarily reality – inner vision, hallucination, and dream may provide us as real as what we see in external phenomena – this plays an important role in Surrealism and the relationships between dream and reality, vision and illusion, what we see and what we do not see, are among the central issues that the Surrealist painters wanted to address.

658. The Eternally Obvious

Personally I think this is the most “magical” work in this exhibition and what you actually see is definitely beyond the five pieces of female torso. It simply ignites your imagination and brings about the inner desire to connect these disjoint pieces and even to create . Each individual piece may also represent a radical and violent act in terms of creation – the cropped and closeup view of a particular part of a female’s body – to some sense it looks like a photograph rather than a painting. It interestingly illustrates the relationship between these two and somewhat the fear that photography as mechanical reproduction is threatening the role of painting.

660. Elective Affinities

One of the several works that I cannot understand well. Magritte are trying to depict some form of illusion here because the positions of the edges of the cage are self-contradictory.

661. The Light of Coincidence

This one is my favorite since there are so many interpretations of its meaning, and the line between truth and illusion so blurred here. One cannot really tell if we are seeing a painted female torso in the frame, or instead a sculpture which is illuminated by the candle. The vivid light and shades of the torso is driving us to discover the truth and puzzling us at the same time, with the help the candle, which then represents illumination. Human is illuminated by arts, just like the torso is illuminated by the candle. This simple and complex work illustrates how paintings are created and how arts tell or do not tell stories and communicating ideas.

662. The Interpretation of Dreams

One interesting thing about this work is the English rather than French words under each of the objects (thought only the bottom right is correct). The mismatch between the objects and the meanings of the words reveals the complexity how we as a view gather information from a painting.

663. Clairvoyance

Magritte himself is present in this painting, illustrating what his daily work looks like and what he thinks about his work and art itself. Painting is about reproduction – it tells us the truth but also suggests multiplicity. There is no relationship between the egg and the bird and it is something else which is beyond the simply realistic and mechanical reproduction that connects this two objects together.

664. Not to Be Reproduced

The caption of this work is interesting – not to be reproduced. Perhaps this is why the figure behind the mirror refused to turn around his face to us? This hence poses the question on the role of painting as means of reproduction. The figure behind the mirror represents the hidden potential behind our everyday life. More often than not, life and truth is not about what we see but what it is concealed.

665. On the Threshold of Liberty

It is hard to imagine what you will really feel if you walk into a room like this. This painting plays with our expectations. One thing to note is that the texture in each plane (for example, the female torso and the wood next to it) and Magritte has applied quite different techniques to achieve that.

中华书局，2013年10月出版。

其实大多数人应都是从《七十年代》中知道的张郎郎。那部北岛与李陀编撰的文集，相信影响了不少我们这一代读书的人。记得也是从那时候起，文革开始成为全民的集体乡愁（我不甚了解那段历史的前前后后，也找不到一个更好的名字去指代）。在如今这个物欲横流的小时代，过往苦涩而浪漫的青春，无疑是个清新有味的文化消费品。

本书的封面，“宁静地”印着略有些磨损痕迹的大红色宋体字，与《七十年代》一脉相承，当然讲故事的人就只剩下张郎郎一个。文章篇幅很薄，看完过后谈不上欢喜——过去那种挖到珍宝一般的滋味已经荡然无存——反倒是对（至少在自己身上）这种蔓延的文化乡愁有了更清醒的认识。看着一群高干子弟在那个“大时代”里潇洒绰约的身姿，自己萌生的浅浅惆怅和某几个瞬间流露出的欣羡，无外乎是吾等愚民对王公贵族诗意生活的遐想和意淫时候流出的口水罢了。我倒不是对此有什么态度，只是恍然觉得，我们国家千百年来的那段深宫院内与百姓庶民间的微妙纽带，也就是这种感情的集体表现吧。

让我印象最深的是那两篇讲孙维世和“太阳纵队”的。现在闭上眼睛，感觉自己好像还弥留在太虚梦境中，那是一种只有在《阳光灿烂的日子》里才看得见摸的着的金黄色，寄存着诗人的骨髓和青春期的荷尔蒙。说来也奇怪，每当提起类似这种情感，我总是不自觉地去打量一番自己，因为好像在现在，最不纯粹和最值得怀疑的反而就是纯粹本身。历朝历代自然不缺少阴谋家，不过反倒在这个“娱乐至死”的年代里，阴谋论心理却开始深植于每个人的心中了——它永远是我们看待人和事的备选答案之一。信息膨胀，想必我们比任何古人都更乐意去解释万事万物的源因。

官二代，高洋上，舞文弄墨，戏剧和诗歌，还有风铃一般的女子——只不过它们都被套上了一层中山装一般的灰色，当然还被（万万忽略不得的）历史沉痛的碾压——这是一剂再营养不过的心灵鸡汤。每个民族都有他们喜好的情感归宿，而我们的也许就是那个陶潜给后世编织的乐园。作者在篇尾《迷人的流亡》中点到，“乌托邦情结和种牛痘一样，一旦种上了，就跟你一辈子”。当然，这都是给酒足饭饱的人准备的，吃饱喝足了，自然就会觉得桃源在不远的地方。