The Essential Rene Magritte

by todd-alden

Book by Alden, Todd

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Reference, Art and Photography

112 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

Reviews

[Lukasz Pruski · Rating 3 out of 5]

"People who look for symbolic meanings fail to grasp the inherent poetry and mystery of the image. No doubt they sense this mystery, but they wish to get rid of it. They are afraid. By asking, 'What does it mean?' they express a wish that everything be understandable."
René Magritte

I find it a little unfair that Salvador Dalí is a household name while René Magritte is not. Magritte's contributions to popular culture are at least as important as Dalí's. Dalí's The Persistence of Memory with its melting clocks is matched in its awe-inspiring power by Magritte's Time Transfixed with its "steaming locomotive emerging from a fire place" in a living room. Dalí's Swans Reflecting Elephants is not in any way more groundbreaking than Magritte's The Son of Man where a "floating green apple conceals the face of a bowler-hatted man." Not to mention Magritte's The Treason of Images -- the image of a pipe with the caption Ceci n'est pas une pipe ("This is not a pipe") -- whose shock value exceeds even the most outlandish of Dalí's creations. While Dalí is certainly more popular, most likely due to his persistent self-promotion, Magritte, through his art, achieved more to jolt the viewers out of their comfort zone of having everything understandable and understood.

Todd Alden's The Essential René Magritte (1999) is a nice short introduction to life and works of the Belgian painter. To me, the greatest value of this little book are the images. 47 most famous paintings of Magritte are reproduced in this volume; I have seen a few of them for the first time, even though Magritte is by far my absolutely favorite painter. Other than enjoying the art, the reader will learn about the major events of the painter's life and will follow the trajectory of his artistic evolution from the Dada movement, Cubism, and Futurism of the early 20th century to becoming one of the "grandfathers of Pop," the movement that began in the 1960s.

Yet another valuable component of the book are quotes by Magritte. Let me include one more, in addition to the epigraph:

"Surrealist thought is revolutionary because it is relentlessly hostile to all those bourgeois ideological values that keep the world in the appalling condition it is in today."

I take the word "bourgeois" to mean "the traditional, established, respected, practical, and ordinary."

Despite quoting Magritte's statement that ridicules the "wish that everything be understandable," the author tries to help the reader understand the main characteristics of Magritte's art. The reader will find several lists of techniques used by Magritte to "deceive the eye" (for instance, "isolating objects out of context," "juxtaposing elements that don't generally go together," or "changing the scale of objects and their usual relationship to their contexts") or strategies to take the viewer out of the ordinary (like "fossilization," "animism," "doubling," etc.)

Reading this book made me think about why I like Magritte's art so much. Maybe, just maybe, one of the reasons is that the artist was always mischievously intent on making the viewers doubt what they see, helping them get rid of the childish delusion that the truth can be seen.

Three-and-a-quarter stars.

[Dorrit · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book: Magritte protested against any symbolic interpretation of his paintings that might explicitly explain the poetics of mystery.

Also this book: Doesn't this look like it is because of his mother's death? Isn't this reminiscent of his trauma of seeing his mother's body? Doesn't this remind him of the displacement that followed his mother's death?

[Suzanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Factually useful, but the writing is abysmal. I cringed at the usage of "the times, they were a changin'" in the prose, but was nonetheless unprepared for the assault of "Smells Like Dada Spirit" as a section heading. By the time I was invited to wonder "what was Magritte smoking" while reading a page dominated by a certain pipe, I was beyond help. All of this, accompanied by the unforgivable, in my view, employment of the historic present, made for rough, if blessedly brief, reading indeed.

[Réka · Rating 4 out of 5]

some people are so mad about this book and i don’t understand why? it’s what it it supposed to be. a lighthearted, funny little book on Magritte 🤷‍♀️

[Bhargavi · Rating 3 out of 5]

the writing is annoying at times but the content is okay

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

©1999/2007 hardcover

A brief overview of the surrealist art of Rene Magritte.

[Marion · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short look at the painter Magritte's life and works provided an evening's respite from a humid spring day. The 2003 cover features a section from "The False Mirror" - an eye's view of the clouds which CBS later co-opted for its logo (rather than the pipe from the first edition). I chuckled at Magritte's sense of humor, particularly with "Personal Values," in which he paints objects size-wise in terms of importance to him - large glass, giant comb, tiny bed.

[jonathan berger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Readable, well-illustrated, and ably keeping the whole of Magritte's career in view while remaining a bit shallow, this book is everything you could ask for in a $7 Barnes & Noble house-imprint primer. Magritte is more a philosopher with a paintbrush than a technical sophisticate, so the small format is of little concern, and the book delivers a workmanlike but worthwhile read.

[Tami · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Rene Magritte. He stuff is so awesome! It really makes you think and wonder. Check him out! You will be glad you did.:)

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very brief bio of a most intriguing artist - I embraced how life experiences played into Magritte's art.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book literally contradicts itself and isn’t the most fleshed out little thing but damn did it help me with my final project for my BOM class.