Elective Affinities

Legend has it that in 1932 artist Rene Magritte, “woke up one night in a room where a bird was sleeping in a cage. But he imagined that he saw an egg in the cage.”

He then painted a gigantic egg in a cage. He called his work, “Elective Affinities”, and he became a different type of surrealist.

This event was the egg for the rest of his career.

Magritte stated, "A new and astonishing poetic secret that arose from the idea of juxtaposing related, as opposed to unrelated, things.”

The meaning behind the work is relatable because, in many ways, our true self is caged.

And it may also symbolize the unlimited potential of a child that never is realized.

Magritte went on to paint eggs several more times and hatch new ideas into our sense of being.