This is not a René Magritte exhibition

So I thought I’d do a blog about Liverpool! Oh you lovely city…although I am often roaming around in Manchester (another city with a firm place in my heart), Liverpool has and always will be my favourite city for the people and the things in it. I've always come here ever since I was a child and I love the things it has to offer!

Filling ourselves up with noms from the night before at Yo! Sushi (mmm), we decided to do something in Liverpool the next day.

 I repeat: mmm.

The Albert Dock in particular is one of my favourite parts of Liverpool, and nestled in amongst restaurants and shops is TATE Liverpool. The René Magritte exhibition has been on there for a while and I’d been wanting to go for equally as long. I eventually got to go yesterday with my friend Eve – who, fortunately, is an art student and didn’t mind spending ages having a proper look round (sometimes I get bored as fuck in art galleries, but the worst thing is rushing around when you want to spend a lot of time looking at everything. Plus I’d paid £8.10 so I wanted to get my money’s worth, ha ha.)

Maybe a tiny bit pricey (£11 adult, £9 concessions - not sure why my ticket cost £8.10, maybe off-peak times?) you do get your money’s worth from the exhibition, and I thought it was wonderful. There’s a lot of work on display including 12 separate rooms containing different branches of his work, plus home movies and photographs which I thought were incredibly charming and funny. It was also another £5 per person if you wanted a guide to go around the exhibition with you to explain the art, but if you're a cheapskate like me you can always just eavesdrop on someone else's tour whilst pretending to ponder at the art or the meaning of life or something. There was also a room full of erotic sketches such as a man walking towards a giant hairy vagina cave, and a woman with a penis protruding from her tongue. A warning on the outside of the room read "some people may find these images challenging", as a 11 year old boy discovered when he ran out of the room going "URGH mum, don't go in there, it's RUDE!" The very same boy later on had an argument with his mum while I was in my element trying to get into the mood of the paintings, offering to pay a tenner if they could leave there and then (I tried hard not to laugh at this) and uttering his dismay at all the naked paintings of ladies. If anything, I'm surprised he wasn't loving it!

I must admit, I didn't know a lot about Magritte beforehand. I have a friend who has The Son of a Man on a t-shirt and I didn’t have a clue what it was until I started noticing it around in a lot of places. I also even studied “This Is Not a Pipe” at uni and still didn’t realise it was by him so you’ll have to excuse me for being a bit of an idiot. It was a bit of a discovery for me - I'd never realised quite how surreal his work was and some of his work reminded me of the painting style of Frida Kahlo who is a big favourite of mine. So although my tastes in art are very hit and miss, I was easily drawn in by his work.

Anyway, we got to Liverpool and had a walk around the docks (lovely as ever, even despite the wind and the rain) and laughed at tourists trying to stop their hats from blowing away.

(A view of the docks taken from inside the exhibition - the sheer amount of bird poo on the glass somewhat obscuring the lovely view with the Cathedral in the background).

I'm one of those creeps who sometimes goes to art galleries and gets so transfixed by the colour of the walls that I can't focus on the art. I always fall in love with the views out of the Tate windows, actually many a time I've spent more time looking out of the window at the view thinking how lovely it is than looking at the art. I also fucking love the colour of the walls. Look at them! *drools*. Maybe this is a bit weird. I apologise.

As for the actual exhibition, it was fantastic. As some of you might be surprised to hear, it takes a lot for me to get exited about something but once I do I'm pretty much smitten. The mixture of paintings with sketches, home videos, photographs and also some of his commercial work meant that there was a lot of variation, keeping everything exciting. Plus I have a total loathing for quiet art galleries and his work got everyone talking so I didn't feel as awkward walking around in total silence. This might just be because I'm a bit odd though.

Some of my favourite pieces of work were...

The Flavour of Tears (1948)

This Is Not A Pipe (1929)

Woman-Bottle (1945)

Perspective II: Manets Balcony (1950) 

A witty piss-take of Manet's "The Balcony".

Plus I absolutely love this one (I can't believe how many people kept a straight face whilst looking at this. It's funny, non?)

Magritte's work on the cover of André Breton's "What is surrealism?"

There was also a wall full of tiny little photos, I absolutely love these especially the bottom one with Georgette Magritte. I think they're incredibly sweet.

After a visit to the shop I left with a couple of postcards (everything else in the shop was insanely overpriced, £50 for a cushion in the shape of a cloud?! I could make one myself for under a fiver *turns into mother*). Had a great day and what a funny and brilliant artist Magritte is. Lucky Liverpool for having such an exhibition. If you can do, get down to TATE Liverpool whilst it's still on! I don't think you'll regret it.