The Covid-19 pandemic has reshaped our daily lives in numerous ways, one of which is our enhanced ability to recognize people with only the upper half of their faces visible.

This newfound skill emerged from the necessity of wearing masks to curb the virus’s spread. Over time, we have become more adept at identifying friends, family, and colleagues through subtle cues such as the shape of one’s eyes, eyebrows and forehead. This phenomenon interestingly parallels the artistic themes explored by the surrealist painter René Magritte (1898-1967), known for his recurring motif of partially or totally obscured faces. In both cases, we try to imagine the visible that is hidden.

Magritte’s works, such as The Lovers and The Son of Man, often depict faces hidden behind masks, cloth, or other objects. These images challenge viewers to look beyond the obvious and seek deeper meaning, mirroring our current challenge of recognizing masked individuals. The masks in Magritte’s art symbolize the hidden aspects of identity and perception, much like how we’ve had to rely on less obvious facial features and contextual clues to identify masked individuals during the pandemic.

Thus, the pandemic has inadvertently trained us in a form of visual perception that resonates with Magritte’s exploration of concealment and identity, underscoring the complex interplay between visibility and recognition in both art and everyday life.