Beskrivelse
Unless you’re writing your MFA thesis on Magritte, this is probably the only high-level book you’ll need on the subject. It’s certainly the best, with the right mix of biography, scholarly insight, and analysis. There are multiple reproductions of Magritte’s work, and while (unfortunately) most of them aren’t in color, most of the crucial plates are. And for those that aren’t, virtually all the images can be found online in color if you look. You will recognize many of the paintings in this book, and you will find several “new” favorite paintings here too. Sunny blue skies. bowler-hatted gents, ambiguous figures, and hooded mystery men abound, of course. Magritte’s most popular works are still indeed very popular and reproduced as posters, calendars, etc. They also are an important influence on advertising and commercial art. In fact, Magritte’s imagery (along with Dali’s melting watches) are the go-to graphics for when an art director wants something a bit surreal. (Pink Floyd’s album covers make this point quite well). Suzi Gablik doesn’t touch on this aspect of the Magritte phenomenon, but she does include information on Magritte’s background in advertising and his philosophy on reproductions as being just as satisfactory a conduit for spreading ideas as the original artwork.
