ART LESSON FROM MAGRITTE

Neither Sankara’s formulation

of Maya

nor  Russell’s tract

Appearance and Reality

made any sense to me

until one fine morning

at LACMA, L.A.,

I stood transfixed

for more than twenty minutes

before a Magritte

that epitomized

The Treachery of Images:

“Ceci ne’est pas une pipe”*

 

Life hasn’t been the same again:

what matters now

are only things deeply felt within;

the gloss and sheen,

the dirt and squalor outside

of little consequence.

 

 

*This is Not a Pipe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/René_Magritte

 

 

p4  (c) pradeep gopalan