Chances are

you have seen a painting by Rene Magritte before. His surreal paintings

are known for faceless men in bowler hats or giant green apples. If you

haven't seen one of his works before, you now have a chance as the High

Museum of Art will feature five of Magritte's paintings on loan from The

Menil Collection in Houston. The Magritte exhibition is the third in a

series that has already brought works by Renoir and van Gogh to Atlanta.

The five paintings

in the exhibition are "The Siren's Song," "The Dead Bird,"

"The Listening Room," "The Origins of Language," and

"Evening Falls."

"The Dead

Bird" is from his early period, painted between 1926 and 1927, while

he was still painting in Belgium and working with a group of writers,

musicians and artists dabbling in Surrealism. The other paintings were

painted between 1952 and 1964 when Magritte was in his mid fifties and

sixties. He was living in Paris and began to achieve success as pop art

became popular after World War II. His work remains popular today. In

1991, Jeff Beck put a Magritte work on the cover of his Beck-ola album.

"Magritte's

images of everyday objects in and out of the ordinary settings are a departure

from what many people think of as Surrealism," said Carrie Przybilla,

curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the High Museum. "This

exhibition challenges the idea that Surrealism only draws on the world

of dreams and the occult, and shows that mysteries of the visible world

can be much more perplexing."

"The Mystique

of Rene Magritte: Five Surrealist Paintings from The Menil Collection,

Houston" will be on display at the High Museum of Art through Dec.

1. The museum is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sundays

from 12-5 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for students and seniors,

$4 for children ages 6-17 and free for Museum members and children under

the age of six. Phone 404-733-HIGH or visit www.high.org.

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