Magritte with Hat

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Magritte with Hat

Artist Duane Michals (American, born 1932)

Date1965

DimensionsOverall: 8 1/16 x 9 15/16 in. (20.4 x 25.3 cm);
Image: 5 x 7 7/16 in. (12.8 x 18.9 cm)

MediumGelatin-silver print

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LineGift of Dorothy Mackenzie Price

Object number

1990.54

Not on View

Label TextMimicking the surreal artwork of the Belgian master René Magritte (1898–1967), Duane Michals produced a half-length frontal view of Magritte with a bowler hat resting upside down atop his head. In Magritte’s surrealistic paintings, a nebulous man wearing a bowler is a recurring theme. Michals superimposed over the portrait a fainter double-exposed image of a hand placing a large “ghostly’ bowler hat over Magritte. Known for producing a sequence of photographs to communicate a narrative, here Michals has ‘sequenced’ one image over another. Michals has been much inspired by the art of Magritte in his quest to use photography to convey a sense of what can be imagined or dreamt—what is beyond the visible. Just like Magritte, his work challenges preconditioned perceptions of reality.Exhibition HistoryTMA, About Face Sept.30 - Dec.31 2005. Toledo Museum of Art, Refraction/Reflection, April 20-September 2, 2012.

Toledo Museum of Art, Werner Pfeiffer Selects, Feb. 13-May 10, 2015.

Toledo Museum of Art, Framing Fame: 19th- & 20th-century Celebrity Photography, March 4–June 4, 2017.