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
Publisher : Pantheon; Illustrated edition (November 30, 2021)- Language : English
- Hardcover : 480 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0307908194
- ISBN-13 : 978-0307908193
- Item Weight : 2.08 pounds
- Dimensions : 7.38 x 1.48 x 9.52 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #151,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #34 in Surrealist Literary Criticism
- #254 in Artist & Architect Biographies
- #472 in Arts & Photography Criticism
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.
Using thirty-two pages of color images and more than 160 black-and-white illustrations throughout the text, Danchev delves deeply into Magritte’s artistic development and the profound questions he raised in his work about the very nature of authenticity.
“Monumental . . . A fascinating study of a man whose ‘stunning imagination ha[s] revolutionized what we see and how we understand’ . . . Sure to be the definitive account of the extraordinary artist’s life.” —Publishers Weekly
