The Son of Man

The Son of Man is a contemporary artwork about concealment, curiosity, and the one face we are never allowed to see.

The bowler hat. The suit and tie. The apple, hanging exactly where the face should be. Magritte's most famous refusal is rebuilt here point by point, a gentleman in perfect order with his identity politely replaced by fruit. Everything about him is visible except the only thing we actually want to look at.

No paint. No print. No ink. The image exists in depth, not on the surface, formed by controlled absences that catch the light and return the figure from the dark. The medium doubles Magritte's joke with complete sincerity. A painting about hiding, rebuilt from holes. The concealment is no longer painted on the surface. It goes all the way through.

Magritte said that everything we see hides another thing, and that we always want to see what is hidden. This work holds that appetite in permanent suspension. As the viewer moves, the hat brim sharpens, the apple brightens, the suit gathers out of scattered points, and the face stays exactly as absent as it has been since 1964.

The void does not hide him more than the apple did. It just stops pretending the hiding could ever be undone.

The Son of Man continues the Art with Void series by Tijs Dragtsma, in which imagery is constructed through depth and absence rather than paint or print. A visual language where absence is not emptiness, but presence.

"What is hidden is not gone. It is what holds the gaze."

More about the artist, process and materials can be found on the About page.

Questions about this work, availability or shipping can be sent through the contact page.