Magritte and Contemporary Art
by Stephanie Barron
from Ludion/Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Magritte's seminal painting "The Treachery of Images (This Is Not a Pipe)" is a Surrealist and Modernist masterpiece that has become an instantly recognizable pop culture icon. It's also an excellent image with which to begin a serious discussion about the meaning(s) of representation. While many books and exhibitions have undertaken to survey the work of Magritte, and while many have acknowledged his profound impact upon other artists of his generation, none has yet studied the precise connections between Magritte's work and today's top contemporary artists. In The Treachery of Images, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art brings together more than 50 of the most important Magrittes with an equal number of very significant works by contemporary artists, both cool and edgy, including Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, Vija Celmins, Joseph Kosuth, Sherrie Levine, Richard Artschwager, Jeff Koons, Martin Kippenberger, Jim Shaw, Raymond Pettibon, Robert Gober and Marcel Broodthaers. Among the distinguished contributors are the internationally renowned art writer Thierry de Duve, co-curator Michel Draguet (director of the Musees Royaux de Bruxelles), critic Pepe Karmel and art historian Dickran Tashjian. Chapters and interviews are devoted to Ruscha, Celmins, Gober and Artschwager, among others.
Magritte
by Jacques Meuris
from Taschen
The works of Rene 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.
Rene Magritte 1898-1967: Thoughts Rendered Visible (Basic Art) (Basic Art)
by Marcel Paquet
from Taschen
Magritte: Colour Library (Phaidon Colour Library)
by Richard Calvocoressi
from Phaidon Press
Magritte (World of Art)
by Suzi Gablik
from Thames & Hudson
The Portable Magritte (Portables)
from Universe Publishing
The Essential Rene Magritte (Essential Series)
by Todd Alden
from Andrews McMeel Publishing
Magritte
by Jean-Michel Goutier
from D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers
A picture of a pipe is not really a pipe, and a daylight-filled sky can shine over a streetlamp-lit townhouse, and a painting of a window inside a painting of a sitting room can be the window in that sitting room, and a room-sized rock can gaze out of that room at the sea, and, of course, a man is a suit can have a green apple for a face. At least, that is, in the world of Magritte. And who wouldn't want to believe in that world, or at least take pleasure in the ability to recognize parts of it in our own? One of the most charming and beloved of the surrealists, Rena Magritte took a light, witty paintbrush and created a world both familiar and not--but always recognizable in our dreams. His plays on semiotics, identity, the idea of woman, the possibilities inherent in objects, and the idea that everything was not necessarily what it seemed--or what it was supposed to be--are celebrated here in an intelligent retrospective monograph, featuring more than 150 paintings, sculptures, objects, and works on paper. The organization of this catalogue paints Magritte as an innovator, and an artist who has had significant influence on contemporary creators. Accompanying essays, including an introduction by Alain Robbe-Grillet, inventor of the nouveau roman, consider Magritte's influence on modern and contemporary art. Magritte's relationships with his surrealist contemporaries Louis Scutenaire and Andra Breton, and the art dealers Edward James and Alexandre Iolas, are each revealed through individual art historical texts and a selection of unpublished letters. An illustrated chronology is included as well. This catalogue is published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris.
The Essential: Rene Magritte (Essentials)
This book reveals the many tantalizing guises of Magritte as painter, writer, Surrealist, thinker, chess player, graphic designer, advertising man, magazine editor, anti-Fascist, moviegoer, pulp mystery fan, and classical music lover. Finally you'll understand (and laugh at) the meaning of that train zooming out of the fireplace and the giant green apple that fills an entire room. Rich with background information about Dada and Surrealism; plentiful anecdotes and pertinent and poignant quotes A magnificent tour through Matisse's intensely rich world of color and line Smart, high-energy digest of Matisse's life and art Matisse's place within the Modernist movement brilliantly analyzed Rich with background information, anecdotes, and pertinent and poignant quotes.
Rene Magritte: Life and Work
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