Semiotic Analysis of Encoding Methods in the “René Magritte” Artworks

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Department of Art Studies, Faculty of Research Excellence in Art and Entrepreneurship, Art University of Isfahan

Abstract

Encoding and decoding are among the key processes of cultural and social communications. This article has tried to clarify the concepts of quadruple semiotic codes for visual communications proposed by Arthur Asa Berger; and to pursue these codes in the paintings of René Magritte, the well-known Belgian Surrealist artist. Four types of communicational codes as identified by Berger are: Metonymic, Analogic, Displaced and Condensed. Magritte has an idiosyncratic approach to Surrealism. He spent many years working as a commercial designer, and this most likely shaped his fine art, which often has abbreviated impact. His works have a powerful paradox: beauty, clarity and simplicity, against a cryptic provoking and shocking effect. As the result of this research, we may find traces of metonymic code in Magritte’s “The red model” (1935), analogic code in “The false mirror” (1929), displaced code in “The son of man” (1964), and condensed code in “The revealing of the present” (1936).

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References

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