The Tune and Also the Words

Description

René Magritte first conceived this famous image in oil on canvas in 1929, when he was most interested in the relationship between words and pictures. In this work from 1964, Magritte revisited the image, in gouache. “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” (This is not a pipe) articulates that the reproduction of the pipe is not the pipe itself, nor is the word “pipe” an actual pipe, the implement to smoke tobacco. Magritte retitled this version The Tune and Also the Words (L’Air et la Chanson) because, as he put it, “it is desirable that such a thing is found in as many ‘households’ as possible.”

Provenance

Alexander Iolas Gallery, Paris, by 1964; sold to the Hanover Gallery, London, by 1969. Sold by E. Hammer Gallery, Paris, to the Pace Gallery, New York, Oct. 1973 [Kanoi Keith of the Pace Gallery, New York, in a phone conversation of August 24, 1995]; sold, Museum of Contemporary Art Third Benefit Auction, Chicago, Nov. 15, 1975, lot 43, to Lindy and Edwin Bergman, Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018.

The Tune and Also the Words

René Magritte

1964

Accession Number

119129

Medium

Gouache over traces of graphite on cream wove paper

Dimensions

36.2 × 54.8 cm (14 5/16 × 21 5/8 in.)

Classification

gouache

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection