Musee Magritte Museum if fortified with a vast collection of his works, representing all periods for a versatile and complete retrospective. The museum is merely a branch of the vast of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, which has slowly been acquiring Magritte's life's work via purchases and donations. 40 years after the artist's life, he museum opened its doors in May 2009. The exhibition also includes many works of Magritte's comrades and contemporaries, as well as magazine clippings, publications, posters, photographs, etc. documenting the artist's life.
Magritte is without stating, one of the most influential surrealists and Belgian artist of all time. His work is one so commonly known by people from all walks of life; a name as recognizable (or works, rather) as the likes of Picasso, Dali, Kahlo. It was a pleasure bearing witness to some of his works. His works have always been those that I have known and admired, but my interest has been fully renewed and I have found great inspiration. Magritte was an artist with a voracious appetite for creating works, absorbing thoughts ideas, and experimenting with some of the most controversial art movements in Modernism .
The collection is divided into 3 sections
1898::1929
Following Magritte's work through his earliest encounters with art (impressionistic in style), studies at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts (1916-1918), his constructivist period, encounters with the '7 Arts' group, futurism, cubism, and his first encounter with surrealism (works of de Chirico), Antwerps avant-garde, his marriage to Georgette, moving to Paris and his friendships with the likes of Andre Breton, Louise Aragon, E.L.T. Mensens, Paul Nouge, Camille Goemans, etc.
*Portrait of Pierre Bourgeois
1920
*Drawing of Georgette
1924
Untitled Collage
1926
Panorama Populaire
1926
[a personal favorite]
*Les Prince de Objects
1927
L'Usage de La Parole
1927
[an example of his Words and Images]
*Muscles of the Sky
1927
Samuels Catalogue
1927
[prime example of Magritte drawing; applied to advertisement and illustration]
*Portrait of Paul Nouge
1927
False Mirror
1928
La Trahison des Images
1928-29
*The Treachery of Images (This Continues to Not Be a Pipe)
1952
1930::1950
Magritte's return to Brussels, "Idiotic Works" (advertising), Concept of image and its repetition, Communist Party in Belgium, Laying low during WW2; 'sunlight' surrealism, 'Vache' period, etc.
*Primevere
1929
[Idiot Works]
Portrait of Eluard; White Magic
1936
*Georgette
1937
*Companions of Fear
1942
[Animal/leaves are a common image repeated in many of Magritte's works; I so happen to like owls better than doves]
Elsinore
1944
[part of his Sunlit period; again one of my favorites, and reminds me alot of Clive Barker's Illustrations in the book Abarat]
*Black Magic
1945
*Cover of View Magazine
1946
*Poster for the Festival Mondial du Film et des Beaux-Arts
1947
*Lola de Valence
1948
[Vache Period]
*The Pebble
1948
[Vache Period]
Delusions of Grandeur II
1948
*Giaconda
1953
1951::1967
'The Enchanted Domain', later works, large "Magrittian" images, value of repetition, and my personal favorite section.
*Les Grandes Esperances
???
[exhibited in Enchanted Domain section]
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Perspective II: Manet's Balcony
1950
[a whole series of works by famous French Artists, in which the figures are replaced with coffins]
*Art of Conversation
1951
*Listening Room
1953
*The Dominion of Light
1954
*The Sixteenth of September
1956
*Hommage a Eric von Stroheim
1957
*The Battle of Argonne
1959
*Castle in The Pyrenees
1959 (1963?)
[I wrote in my notebook, "I can't believe I am standing in front of this painting right now"]
*Domain of Arnhaim II
1962
*Clairvoyance
1962
[incredibly smooth and graphic, lack of brushstrokes, and strong presence; a personal favorite]
*Good Faith
1964
*Seen at Musee Magritte Museum
A cute video on the Museum
More Information on Magritte:
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteThe Magritte report is exciting - so glad you saw the museum! His work is awesome. Keep looking....