Claude Monet and René Magritte: Thought Rendered Visible
1
2
3
Per Aage Brandt , Mark Turner , Angelina Manieri
Introduction
Models
Painter, canvas ,
unfinished female
form
Can art be understood in terms of
cognitive processes?
Presentation
Space
Space
Reference
Painter & 2-D:
Strokes
Colors
lines
Observer
Painting
Can mental spaces account for
meaning in painting?
Unfinished
model
with painter
Signifier=
Signified
Signifier is a
Sign of
Signified
Base
Painter’s model and
real woman in
studio
Space
3-D
Motif
Surfaces
contours
Blended Space
Strokes
=motif…
(seeing=touching)
Rene Magritte, Attempting the Impossible,1928,private collection
Claude Monet, The Seine at Giverny, Morning Mists, 1897, North Carolina Art Museum
Claude Monet, The Water-Lily Pond (The Clouds),1903, private collection
Presentation Space
Space
Observer
Painting
Reference
Painter & 2-D
Strokes
Colors
lines
These models show how
visual art makes sense
by blending contents
and by signifying
them through the
iconic sign
(the painting itself).
Rene Magritte and Claude
Monet both “attempt the
impossible”---painting air, light,
or painting
paradoxical ideas.
Mental Spaces can blend and
form compositions that create new
conceptual and semiotic networks.
Base
Conclusion
Space
3-D
Motif
Surfaces
contours
Blended Space
Strokes
=motif…
(seeing=touching)
Rene Magritte, Wonders of Nature, 1953, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872, Musée Marmottan, Paris
Mental Balls
CARROT
Balcony
BOTTLE
Landscape
CarrotBottle
Conceptual Network
Mental
Landscape
C ? B
C = B
Interior=exterior
Exterior=interior
Figure = ground
Representation
=Reality
Still life
Base
Base
Space
Observer
Painting
Semiotic Network
Reference
Presentation Space
Space
Base Space
Observer
Painting
Painter & 2-D
:
Strokes
Colors
lines
3-D
Motif
Surfaces
contours
Presentation
Space
Reference
Painter & 2-D
Strokes
Colors
lines
Space
3-D
Motif
Surfaces
contours
Space
Observer
Painting
Presentation
Space
Reference
Painter & 2-D:
Strokes
Colors
lines
Space
3-D
Motif
Surfaces
contours
Blended Space
Blended Space
Strokes
=motif…
(seeing=touching)
Rene Magritte, The Explanation, 1952, private collection
Claude Monet, Still Life with Flowers and Fruit, 1896, Getty Museum of Art
Strokes
=motif…
(seeing=touching)
Blended Space
Strokes
=motif…
(seeing=touching)
René Magritte, The Human Condition, 1944, Cleveland Museum of Art
Claude Monet, The Red Kerchief: Portrait of Mrs. Monet, 1868
Claude Monet, Low Tide at Pourville, near Dieppe, 1882, Cleveland Museum of Art
Museum spaces often offer
restricted exposure of the
interplay with contexts such as the
media (Magritte) and the
open exteriors (Monet).
Base spaces are therefore part of
the descriptions of art.
Cleveland Museum of Art Giverny Wing
Cleveland Museum of Art Monet Exhibition
References:
Brandt, Aage Per, Spaces, Domains, and Meaning Essays in Cognitive Semiotics, 2004.
The Artful Mind : cognitive science and the riddle of human creativity, ed. Mark Turner,
Oxford; New York, 2006.
Acknowledgments:
Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris
1Director of the Center of Cognition and Culture, Department Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University
2Chair Department of Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University
3Departments of Art History and Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University
I would also like to thank the Cleveland Museum of Art, Case Western Reserve University, Cognitive Science and Art
History Departments.