René Magritte Libri

"The Portable Magritte" represents a new approach to the enjoyment and study of art in book form. With more than 400 color reproductions and a compact handheld size, this book manages to be affordable and comprehensive. It's like a catalogue raisonne that fits in a backpack. This accessible format is a perfect match for the paintings of Rene Magritte-one of the few twentieth-century painters whose works are immediately approachable and who has an enduring cultlike following. His surrealistic and mysterious visions always provoke introspective thought and imagination. All of Magritte's most characteristic and beloved motifs-the green apple, the bowler hat, and the dreamlike twilight hour-make their appearance, along with some surprising lesser-known paintings. The artist's method and meaning is explored in an intriguing essay by Robert Hughes, the art critic for "Time" magazine and acclaimed commentator on art and culture. A hip and current update on this timeless artist, "The Portable Magritte" makes an ideal gift for students as well as art lovers of any age.

Available for the first time in an English translation, this selection gives non-Francophone readers the chance to encounter the many incarnations of renowned Belgian painter René Magritte - the artist, the man, the aspiring noirist, the fire-breathing theorist - in his own words. Through whimsical personal letters, biting apologia, appreciations of fellow artists, pugnacious interviews, farcical film scripts, prose poems, manifestos and much more, a new Magritte emerges: part Surrealist, part littérateur, part celebrity, part rascal. While this book is bound to appeal to admirers of Magritte's art and those who are curious about his personal life, there is also much to delight all readers interested in the history and theory of art, philosophy and politics, as well as lovers of creativity and the inner workings of a probing, inquisitive mind unrestricted by genre, medium or fashion.

It is impossible to overlook the influence of René Magritte (1898-1967) on contemporary art. His surrealistic painting turns the usual order of things ironically on its head, thus restoring mystery to a world that has lost its magic.--From publisher's description.

Published in conjunction with a major exhibition organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in collaboration with The Menil Collection, Houston, and The Art Institute of Chicago, "Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938" focuses on the breakthrough Surrealist years of Rene Magritte, creator of some of the twentieth century's most extraordinary images. Bringing together nearly 80 paintings, collages and objects with a selection of photographs, periodicals and early commercial work, it offers fresh insight into Magritte's identity as a modern artist and one of Surrealism's greatest painters. Beginning in 1926, when Magritte first aimed to create paintings that would, in his words, "challenge the real world," and concluding in 1938--a historically and biographically significant moment just before the outbreak of World War II--the publication traces central strategies and themes from this seminal period, particularly those of displacement, isolation, transformation, metamorphosis, the "misnaming" of objects and the representation of visions seen in half-waking states. The publication also includes an illustrated chronology outlining significant moments in the artist's life during this period, including travel, connections with other Surrealist artists and writers, contributions to journals and important exhibitions and reviews.

The retrospective exhibition of Magritte's work organized by curator David Sylvester at the Tate Gallery in 1969 prompted the Menil Foundation, Texas, to invite him to produce a catalogue raisonne of Magritte, and also this monograph. Sylvester's treatment of the artist's life depicts the ironies of a career full of disappointment, explores his chequered relationship with his dealers, and reveals the realities of a legendary marriage. Its analysis of the work combines discussion of individual pieces with examination of the artist's obsessions and attitudes.

The first ever publication of writings by Magritte in the English language. It provides a fascinating and intimate glimpse into the life of the renowned Belgian painter

A. M. Hammacher, former director of the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands and an authority on twentieth-century art, examines Magritte's interest in language in relation to images and his literary influences, especially his fascination with the themes of Edgard Allan Poe. He describes Magritte's methods of working, and carefully elucidates forty works, reproduced in colour, seeking to introduce the reader to the artist's ideas and obsessions without depriving these pictorial riddles and haunting scenes of their mysterious qualities.

Beautiful full-color pictures of Magritte's finest work including historical context.