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Magritte
- A Life
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
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Magritte
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Publisher's Summary
The first major biography of the pathbreaking, perpetually influential surrealist artist and iconoclast whose inspiration can be seen in everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyoncé - by the celebrated biographer of Cézanne and Braque
In this thought-provoking life of René Magritte (1898-1967), Alex Danchev makes a compelling case for Magritte as the single most significant purveyor of images to the modern world. Magritte’s surreal sensibility, deadpan melodrama, and fine-tuned outrageousness have become an inescapable part of our visual landscape, through such legendary works as The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe), and his celebrated iterations of Man in a Bowler Hat.
Danchev explores the path of this highly unconventional artist, from his middle-class Belgian beginnings to the years in which he led a small, brilliant band of surrealists (and famously clashed with André Breton) to his first major retrospective, which traveled to the United States in 1965 and gave rise to his international reputation.
Danchev delves deeply into Magritte’s artistic development and the profound questions he raised in his work about the very nature of authenticity.
What the critics say
“Lavish, authoritative . . . A superb account of one enigmatic, enduring artist, a gratifying addition to our cultural literature, and an ode to modernity's contradictions . . . We see ourselves in [Magritte’s] compositions, and we are unnerved.” —Hamilton Cain, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“Danchev’s familiarity with francophone culture and Whitfield’s decades of Magritte expertise shine through in this absorbing, masterful biography . . . Magritte: A Life recounts the artist’s life in a sympathetic and comprehensive manner, never reducing the mystery of one of the most influential of modern artists.” —Alexander Adams, The Art Newspaper
“Far from underestimating Magritte, Danchev’s picture of him is pointillist and enormous in scope. It is full of shock.” —Jo Livingstone, The New Republic