This Is Not A Bill

While I can’t say that René Magritte is my favorite artist, several of his works resonate. Of those, the one at the top of my list would be “The Son of Man”, which figures prominently in the film “The Thomas Crown Affair”, and reminds me how I felt when I worked for a living.

The Son of Man

Next on my list of favs would be his “The Treachery of Images” painting of a not-pipe.

This Is Not A Pipe

The point is that the painting itself is not a pipe, but a representation of the pipe. We give Magritte credit for this existential insight, but in fact he was more ahead of his time than you might imagine.

Magritte was prescient to an extreme degree, and it took the invention of computers and electronic billing for the rest of the world to catch up.

Magritte’s Vision Realized

I’m tempted to pay with a picture of a check, and write on it “This is not a check”, but I don’t think the government has a a well developed sense of humor.