René François Ghislain Magritte (1898-1967). Belgian surrealist painter. He painted images full of wise humour, perspective and provocative thinking. They often depict a collection of everyday objects placed in an unusual context. For example, his painting Pipe looks like an advertisement for the tobacco trade. It bears the inscription This is not a pipe, which may not seem like the truth. But not on second thought: we see an image of a pipe (Magritte himself said: Try to stuff this pipe with tobacco.). His paintings are poetic and realistic (as opposed to images of another important surrealist, Joan Miró). His paintings significantly influenced his contemporaries and even artists today, and the artistic direction of the entire pop art movement. They became part of mainstream culture (often in the form of imitation in advertisements, etc.).