The False Mirror

René Magritte, 1929 · Gallery 517 · Floor 5

So you came here to look at it, and it's looking at you. One enormous eye. And where the iris should be, sky. Blue, daylight, clouds drifting through. And dead center, the pupil, a flat black circle. There's no glint in it. Painted eyes usually get that little spark to show the reflection of the room they're looking at. This one gives nothing back. So which way does it go? Are you looking through the eye, at the sky on the other side? Or into it, at what it sees? Magritte, the Belgian Surrealist, called it The False Mirror, which answers nothing. That was the idea. Anyway, Man Ray owned this one for a while in the thirties, before it ended up here. In 1951, CBS needed a logo. Their creative director came up with an eye. He said he got it from Shaker folk art. People have been pointing at this painting anyway. The CBS eye. It's been staring out of TV sets ever since. One eye sells. And one watches.

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