Author Description

Twenty-three years have passed since the work of René Magritte was last presented in Paris, but in that time it had not ceased gaining in importance and resonance. This book, which accompanies the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume’s exhibition highlighting Magritte’s innovative dimension, provides an assessment of the stature of this major Surrealist figure. Paintings, gouaches, drawings, collages and photographs dating from Magritte’s decisive beginnings in 1925 to his death in 1967 demonstrate the profusion and evolution of the artist’s creative thought: its constant investigation of the concepts of reality and representation, its analysis of the relationship between what paintings show and what they signify, its questioning of the connection between words and images, objects and their representation, all in order to arouse a “sense of mystery” in the viewer. For Magritte, in fact, “Mystery is not one of reality’s possibilities. Mystery is what is absolutely necessary in order for there to be a reality.”