About this book
A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR
'The first significant biography of the artist' Michael Prodger, The Times' 'Best art books of 2021'
'Exemplary ... a scintillating read' Alastair Sooke, Daily Telegraph
'For those who love Magritte and those who do not, Danchev's biography will come as a revelation' Literary Review
René Magritte's surreal sensibility, deadpan melodrama, and fine-tuned outrageousness have all become inescapably part of our times. But these groundbreaking subversions all came from a middle-class Belgian gent, who kept a modest house in a Brussels suburb and whose first one-man show sold absolutely nothing.
Through a deep examination of Magritte's friendships and his artistic development, Alex Danchev explores the path of an highly unconventional artist who posed profound questions about the relationship between image and reality, challenged the very nature of authenticity and whose influence can be seen in the work of everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyoncé.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1. His Secret Jungle
- 2. Normal Madness
- 3. Cupid’s Curse
- 4. The Aura of the Extraordinary
- 5. Charm and Menace
- 6. The Cuckoo’s Egg
- 7. Through the Keyhole
- 8. Surfeit and Subversion
- 9. The True and the False
- 10. 1948–1967
- Colour plate section
- Magrittiana: A Note on Sources
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- List of Illustrations
- Index
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