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Selected Writings
Available for the first time in an English translation, this selection gives non-Francophone readers the chance to encounter the many incarnations of renowned Belgian painter René Magritte – the artist, the man, the aspiring noirist, the fire-breathing theorist – in his own words. Through whimsical personal letters, biting apologia, appreciations of fellow artists, pugnacious interviews, farcical film scripts, prose poems, manifestos and much more, a new Magritte emerges: part Surrealist, part littérateur, part celebrity, part rascal.
While this book is bound to appeal to admirers of Magritte’s art and those who are curious about his personal life, there is also much to delight all readers interested in the history and theory of art, philosophy and politics, as well as lovers of creativity and the inner workings of a probing, inquisitive mind unrestricted by genre, medium or fashion.
“If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream.” René Magritte
While this book is bound to appeal to admirers of Magritte’s art and those who are curious about his personal life, there is also much to delight all readers interested in the history and theory of art, philosophy and politics, as well as lovers of creativity and the inner workings of a probing, inquisitive mind unrestricted by genre, medium or fashion.
“If the dream is a translation of waking life, waking life is also a translation of the dream.” René Magritte
384 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2016
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682 people want to read
About the author
René Magritte
108 books77 followersRené François Ghislain Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images.
Magritte was born in Lessines, in the province of Hainaut, in 1898, the eldest son of Léopold Magritte, a tailor, and Adeline, a milliner. He began lessons in drawing in 1910. In 1912, his mother committed suicide by drowning herself in the River Sambre. Magritte was present when her body was retrieved from the water. The image of his mother floating, her dress obscuring her face, may have influenced a 1927–1928 series of paintings of people with cloth obscuring their faces, including Les Amants, but Magritte disliked this explanation. He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels for two years until 1918. In 1922 he married Georgette Berger, whom he had met in 1913.
Magritte worked as an assistant designer in a wallpaper factory, and was a poster and advertisement designer until 1926, when a contract with Galerie la Centaure in Brussels made it possible for him to paint full-time. In 1926, Magritte produced his first surreal painting, The Lost Jockey (Le jockey perdu), and held his first exhibition in Brussels in 1927. Critics heaped abuse on the exhibition. Depressed by the failure, he moved to Paris where he became friends with André Breton, and became involved in the surrealist group.
When Galerie la Centaure closed and the contract income ended, he returned to Brussels and worked in advertising. Then, with his brother, he formed an agency, which earned him a living wage.
Surrealist patron Edward James allowed Magritte, in the early stages of his career, to stay rent free in his London home and paint. James is featured in two of Magritte's pieces, Le Principe du Plaisir (The Pleasure Principle) and La Reproduction Interdite.
During the German occupation of Belgium in World War II he remained in Brussels, which led to a break with Breton. At the time he renounced the violence and pessimism of his earlier work, though he returned to the themes later.
His work was exhibited in the United States in New York in 1936 and again in that city in two retrospective exhibitions, one at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965, and the other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1992.
Magritte died of pancreatic cancer on August 15, 1967 and was interred in Schaarbeek Cemetery, Brussels.
Popular interest in Magritte's work rose considerably in the 1960s, and his imagery has influenced pop, minimalist and conceptual art. In 2005 he came 9th in the Walloon version of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian); in the Flemish version he was 18th.
Magritte was born in Lessines, in the province of Hainaut, in 1898, the eldest son of Léopold Magritte, a tailor, and Adeline, a milliner. He began lessons in drawing in 1910. In 1912, his mother committed suicide by drowning herself in the River Sambre. Magritte was present when her body was retrieved from the water. The image of his mother floating, her dress obscuring her face, may have influenced a 1927–1928 series of paintings of people with cloth obscuring their faces, including Les Amants, but Magritte disliked this explanation. He studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels for two years until 1918. In 1922 he married Georgette Berger, whom he had met in 1913.
Magritte worked as an assistant designer in a wallpaper factory, and was a poster and advertisement designer until 1926, when a contract with Galerie la Centaure in Brussels made it possible for him to paint full-time. In 1926, Magritte produced his first surreal painting, The Lost Jockey (Le jockey perdu), and held his first exhibition in Brussels in 1927. Critics heaped abuse on the exhibition. Depressed by the failure, he moved to Paris where he became friends with André Breton, and became involved in the surrealist group.
When Galerie la Centaure closed and the contract income ended, he returned to Brussels and worked in advertising. Then, with his brother, he formed an agency, which earned him a living wage.
Surrealist patron Edward James allowed Magritte, in the early stages of his career, to stay rent free in his London home and paint. James is featured in two of Magritte's pieces, Le Principe du Plaisir (The Pleasure Principle) and La Reproduction Interdite.
During the German occupation of Belgium in World War II he remained in Brussels, which led to a break with Breton. At the time he renounced the violence and pessimism of his earlier work, though he returned to the themes later.
His work was exhibited in the United States in New York in 1936 and again in that city in two retrospective exhibitions, one at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965, and the other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1992.
Magritte died of pancreatic cancer on August 15, 1967 and was interred in Schaarbeek Cemetery, Brussels.
Popular interest in Magritte's work rose considerably in the 1960s, and his imagery has influenced pop, minimalist and conceptual art. In 2005 he came 9th in the Walloon version of De Grootste Belg (The Greatest Belgian); in the Flemish version he was 18th.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
October 29, 2016
This is a wonderful collection of Rene Magritte's writings that I am so glad to have access to.
It contains interviews, and letters, and some stuff previously unpublished (which is just fantastic in itself) and all sorts of other articles, or poems, or manifestos. It is well organized and formatted so that each individual piece of writing has its own space to breathe. And some snippets are less than half a page long which makes it super fun to flip through and just read whatever catches your eye. I love this insight into Magritte, who is such a brilliant artist. Thank you thank you thank you for compiling this, having these writings available in english makes me happy.
I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
It contains interviews, and letters, and some stuff previously unpublished (which is just fantastic in itself) and all sorts of other articles, or poems, or manifestos. It is well organized and formatted so that each individual piece of writing has its own space to breathe. And some snippets are less than half a page long which makes it super fun to flip through and just read whatever catches your eye. I love this insight into Magritte, who is such a brilliant artist. Thank you thank you thank you for compiling this, having these writings available in english makes me happy.
I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.
September 2, 2016
I co-edited this, so I can't claim to be objective, but Rene Magritte was a great writer.
August 5, 2017
A thinker, Magritte was in permanent revolution against banality and crass assumptions. He communicated his ideas through paintings, which he called “visible thoughts,” upending society’s conventions. He united the familiar in unexpected ways to create what is unfamiliar and often disturbing. Famous for playing with words and image, millions of people know his iconic painting of a pipe with the words beneath it, Ceci n’est pas une pipe (“this is not a pipe“) — point being the image may be of a pipe, but the pipe is not representative of the image.
In this brave new world of twenty-first century “post-truth politics” in which image matters to an alarming degree, and words no longer need bear any relation to reality, how everyday language disguises thought; the vagueness and ambiguity of words; and the gap between words and seeing, are hot topics. Déjà vu? Magritte captured the essence of the relationship between words and image over half a century ago. The first-ever publication of his Selected Writings in English by Alma Books is long overdue, and timely.
Reviewed in The BookBlast™ Diary 20 Feb 2017.
In this brave new world of twenty-first century “post-truth politics” in which image matters to an alarming degree, and words no longer need bear any relation to reality, how everyday language disguises thought; the vagueness and ambiguity of words; and the gap between words and seeing, are hot topics. Déjà vu? Magritte captured the essence of the relationship between words and image over half a century ago. The first-ever publication of his Selected Writings in English by Alma Books is long overdue, and timely.
Reviewed in The BookBlast™ Diary 20 Feb 2017.
April 28, 2019
This book was good. I enjoy reading other artist’s thoughts, although you do quickly learn to understand that’s just what they are; Thoughts. Just thoughts that people have built their lives and beliefs off of. I sometimes find, especially when people are as clever and insightful as Magritte was, that they preach these thoughts as though they are the only way to go about living life, easily passing judgement on those who don’t agree. I couldn’t relate to all of it and find some of it off-putting due to the fact that he sometimes thought his ideas to be objective, but as a writer myself, I also found these gorgeous gems written throughout that have now inscribed their way across my own mind, ideas and memory. There’s no denying Magritte was an enchanting human who gave us beautiful mystery in his work.
March 31, 2017
This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.5 of 5
Like most people, I suspect, I am familiar with René Magritte from his remarkable, surrealist paintings, but have no clue as to his writing prowess. Until now.
Not surprisingly, the brilliant and extremely creative mind that produced some rather iconic works of art is just as introspective and creative in his writing as well. But Magritte is not a writer in the sense of producing novels or even short stories in the traditional sense. But he does reflect on his work and the works of others and on the idea(s) of art in general. Some of the writings here are only a sentence or two long and some of the writings included are really not 'writings' at all but interviews that have been conducted with Magritte. A more apt title might be 'The Musing of René Magritte.'
Magritte tends to be rather philosophical and sometimes a bit existential in his thoughts, which seems appropriate given his work and the era in which the artist was painting.
It is interesting to get a little insight into the mind of the man who painted the iconic "Apple" paintings and the painting of the pipe with the words "This is not a pipe" included on the painting. It makes sense what he writes in 1967:
And in an interview with Marcel Fryns in 1966 he says:
When asked, in a 1947 interview, what he is interested in, Magritte answers:
One brief passage struck me as particularly interesting and unexpected from an artist ... someone who earned his living with his paintings.
But among all the little nuggets and gems of philosophy offered by Magritte in his writings (and there are plenty), I think his thoughts are best summed up with his 1955 article titled "A Poetic Art" which opens with the sentence: "The art of painting, as I see it, makes possible the realization of visible poetic images."*
Looking for a good book? I recommend René Magritte: Selected Writings.
*Please note: all quotes are from an Advance Readers Copy and may be different from the official, published volume.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
Like most people, I suspect, I am familiar with René Magritte from his remarkable, surrealist paintings, but have no clue as to his writing prowess. Until now.
Not surprisingly, the brilliant and extremely creative mind that produced some rather iconic works of art is just as introspective and creative in his writing as well. But Magritte is not a writer in the sense of producing novels or even short stories in the traditional sense. But he does reflect on his work and the works of others and on the idea(s) of art in general. Some of the writings here are only a sentence or two long and some of the writings included are really not 'writings' at all but interviews that have been conducted with Magritte. A more apt title might be 'The Musing of René Magritte.'
Magritte tends to be rather philosophical and sometimes a bit existential in his thoughts, which seems appropriate given his work and the era in which the artist was painting.
It is interesting to get a little insight into the mind of the man who painted the iconic "Apple" paintings and the painting of the pipe with the words "This is not a pipe" included on the painting. It makes sense what he writes in 1967:
I believe Victor Hugo said, "We only ever see one side of things." Now it is precisely "the other side" that I try to express.*
And in an interview with Marcel Fryns in 1966 he says:
Pop art is rather the descendent of Dadism, but without Dada's freedom at that era. I notice that real avant-garde art has always been badly received, whereas fake avant-garde art is enormously successful. Pop art lacks the authenticity that would give it the power to be provocative.*
When asked, in a 1947 interview, what he is interested in, Magritte answers:
Creating. My only wish is to be enriched by exciting new ideas. For me, art consists in expressing charm and pleasure. Before the war my works reflected anxiety. Experience of conflict and a load of suffering has taught me that what matters above all is to celebrate joy for the eyes and the mind. ... I live in a very unpleasant world because of its routine ugliness.*
One brief passage struck me as particularly interesting and unexpected from an artist ... someone who earned his living with his paintings.
Anyway, it's not necessary to see a painting! There are heaps of reproductions, art books. For me, a reproduction is enough! Like in literature, you don't need to see a writer's manuscript to be interested in his book!*
But among all the little nuggets and gems of philosophy offered by Magritte in his writings (and there are plenty), I think his thoughts are best summed up with his 1955 article titled "A Poetic Art" which opens with the sentence: "The art of painting, as I see it, makes possible the realization of visible poetic images."*
Looking for a good book? I recommend René Magritte: Selected Writings.
*Please note: all quotes are from an Advance Readers Copy and may be different from the official, published volume.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
December 14, 2018
Made up of selections of theory, interviews, and meditations on all things related to Rene Magritte, "Selected Writings" fulfills everyone's need to appreciate and understand that most enigmatic of painters. So, while the work does suffer from some sense of needless repetition, this self-same comprehensiveness makes the work a great resource for those obsessed with Magritte particularly and Surrealism in general. Having received this book in conjunction with a visit to a gallery exhibiting a retrospective of this great Belgian painter, I would recommend a firm acquaintance with the images themselves both because the titles are referred to frequently in the text and the ideas that inform the words and images must be "lived in" to be totally appreciated. With that caveat, get this book, expand your mind, and pierce the "mystery" that is Magritte's paintings! Your vision of what is real will never be the same!
July 22, 2020
There's not enough reviews on this one, so here's my perspective.
As an artist (filmmaker), I found lots of great insights in this book. the type of insights I haven't gotten in any other artist book. Especially Magritte's perspective on the nature of art and it's evolution. Plus, I really liked his text on titles.
But, to be honest, most of the book is mambo-jumbo. full of uninteresting materials, such as gallery brochure type texts. I guess they wanted to make it a 300 page book so they cramped all sorts of random texts.
With that said, I'd still buy this book again, because even if only a 1/3 of it is valuable, it's still has terrific and ingenious thoughts by a truly brilliant artist. Inspiration awaits!
As an artist (filmmaker), I found lots of great insights in this book. the type of insights I haven't gotten in any other artist book. Especially Magritte's perspective on the nature of art and it's evolution. Plus, I really liked his text on titles.
But, to be honest, most of the book is mambo-jumbo. full of uninteresting materials, such as gallery brochure type texts. I guess they wanted to make it a 300 page book so they cramped all sorts of random texts.
With that said, I'd still buy this book again, because even if only a 1/3 of it is valuable, it's still has terrific and ingenious thoughts by a truly brilliant artist. Inspiration awaits!
September 22, 2016
I received a digital copy of this book from net galley in exchange for an honest review.
I was looking forward to reading the selected writings of René Magritte, as I am very familiar with his artwork, but not as much with his writings. This was a great way to be introduced. There were a variety in the selection. From interviews he gave to contributions to written collections and even small wtitings a few sentences long. I'm glad I was able to read this!
I would recommend it to people interested in Magritte (obviously), and anyone interested in artists and Surrealists in particular.
I was looking forward to reading the selected writings of René Magritte, as I am very familiar with his artwork, but not as much with his writings. This was a great way to be introduced. There were a variety in the selection. From interviews he gave to contributions to written collections and even small wtitings a few sentences long. I'm glad I was able to read this!
I would recommend it to people interested in Magritte (obviously), and anyone interested in artists and Surrealists in particular.
November 29, 2020
Recommended for those interested in surrealism and Magritte’s work. The writing and selection of pieces are a bit scattered/random but this is Rene Magritte we are talking about.. so you might want to keep an open mind :)
January 14, 2021
Depth of Magritte
Enough quotes from Magritte to get a sense of his approach. Input from others, too. Mystery within art is Magritte. Art without mystery now seems sterile.
Enough quotes from Magritte to get a sense of his approach. Input from others, too. Mystery within art is Magritte. Art without mystery now seems sterile.
September 2, 2016
I co-edited this so I can't claim to be objective, but Magritte was a great writer.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews