Google redesign logo to celebrate artist's life

By John Hall

Friday 21 November 2008

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Google have temporarily redesigned their logo to incorporate elements of work by the artist Rene Magritte.


Today would have been the 110th birthday of the Belgium surrealist and to celebrate, Google have merged the iconic works The Son of the Man and Golkonga, to create a suitably dreamlike logo of their own.



While Google regularly change their masthead, most redesigns are to commemorate public events and holidays.

Rene Magritte was born in Lessines, western Belgium on November 21 1898, and is well-known for his humorous, thought-provoking paintings - many of which incorporated aspects of pop culture long before Andy Warhol.



Arguably his most important work is The Treachery of Images, a simple advertisement-style painting of a pipe. Beneath the object are the words Ceci n'est pas une pipe (This is not a pipe) – a paradox which spawned hundreds of imitators.

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