Product Description

The works of René Magritte (1898 - 1967) and the ideas that underlie them are a special case both in the history of modern art and in surrealist painting. In the search for the "mystery" in which things and organisms are enveloped, Magritte created pictures which, taking everyday reality as their starting point, were to follow a different logic from that to which we are accustomed. Magritte depicts the world of reality in such unsecretive superficiality that the beholder of his pictures is forced to reflect that the mystery of it is not evoked by some sentimental transfiguration, but rather by the logic of his thoughts and associations. Magritte thus invented an inimitable pictorial language which he uses to question our usual comprehension of pictures. In this book, Jacques Meuris traces Magritte's artistic development from its beginnings until the end of his life, and in doing so underlines the originality of this great Belgian Surrealist.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #264915 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 216 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Though full of subconscious upwellings and startling conjunctions of seemingly unrelated objects, Rene Magritte's paintings are not dreamscapes, according to French art critic Meuris. With every painting, the Belgian surrealist, whose work is "governed by 'thought,' " challenges his viewer's intellect and assumptions about reality. Observes Meuris in Magrittian fashion: "Magritte is not a painter, while yet being a great painter." While the paradox of the paintings of burning tubas remains largely unsolved, other images are successfully unraveled and the heavy French intellectual baggage one might expect is avoided. Meuris also looks at Magritte's little-known photographs, short films, sculptures and surreal objects in this illuminating, delightfully illustrated volume that reaffirms the artist's stature as it traces the fine line he toes between reality and illusion.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"I don't believe in the unconscious, except when we are asleep." Magritte.

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

Customer Reviews

Absolutely amazing
This book on Margritte includes fabulous images and great explanations and references to Magritte's life. I purchased this book in Dutch in Europe, for about four times the price listed here. This is an absolute bargain, and I sincerely regret not having purchased it from Amazon, although I greatly enjoyed having purchased it overall. Any Magritte fan cannot miss this book! Enjoy.

More for your money
As the description above states, this book contains 400 illustrations covering Magritte's entire career. I found that after reading "The Essential Magritte," this was a perfect continuation in my introduction to this man's work. The price is also unbeatable, considering what some art books go for these days. Well written and illustrated, this book was a wonderful find.

More large (good quality) pictures would have been better
In my opinion, the most important thing about a book about a pictorial artist is (usually) the actual pictures shown(including the quality of the reproductions), and I feel in this respect this book falls rather flat. Not only are there not enough large (full or half page) pictures for a book of this size (216 pages) - some of them are poor quality reproductions (a painfully common feature of art books) - why do paintings vary so much between different reproductions?

Instead the book is mainly concerned with excessively wordy discourses on Magritte and his work. I'm not saying I didn't find any of it interesting, but the information and insight I gleaned after 8 hours of reading could have been put over with half as much text. I don't have a problem with writers indulging in intellectual analysis, so long as it is concise and well written, and this wasn't always the case.

Incidentally, Magritte by Richard Calvocoressi (Phaidon - April 1993) is much shorter but has much better pictures in it.

(review altered 27 May 2005, partly to remove British slang words that may have caused confusion)