Rene Magritte: Catalogue Raisonne - Supplement, Bibliography, Indexes

Book Description

One of the most charming and beloved of the surrealists, René Magritte took a light, witty paintbrush and created a world both familiar and not--but always recognizable in our dreams. His plays on semiotics, identity, the idea of woman, the possibilities inherent in objects, and the idea that everything was not necessarily what it seemed--or what it was supposed to be--are celebrated here in an exceptionally charming limited edition. The Blue Box is done up like a handsome book, complete with a leather-bound spine and a bas-relief frontispiece that plays the painting-of-a window-within-a-window trick. Inside is a stash of goodies, each arranged in a separate portfolio. The first contains three original etchings by Magritte, numbered and signed and stamped by the Magritte estate; next is a five-piece full-size reproduction on canvas of The Eternally Obvious, a woman split into as many parts; and last are eight reproductions each of the gouaches The Pig's Beer and Horse Preserve, printed on adhesive paper and meant to be stuck on to bottles just like the originals were. Also included is the hardback edition of Magritte, the catalogue for the Jeu de Paume exhibit (published by D.A.P. in spring 2003). Edited by Daniel Abadie.~Essays by Renilde Hammacher, Michel Butor, Patrick Roegiers, Jean Roudaut, Bernard Noël and Jean-Michel Goutier. Slipcased, 12 x 14.5 in./304 pgs / 291 color 70 BW0 duotone 12 3 B&W etchings, 5 canvas, 4 adhesive color prints~ Item D20365

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A fascinating biography!
More large (good quality) pictures would have been better
More for your money
Absolutely amazing

Rene Magritte, 1898-1967 (Jumbo)
Taschen Publishing , Jacques Meuris , and Taschen
Manufacturer: Benedikt Taschen Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 3822877506

Book Description

The surrealist paintings of René Magritte (1898-1967) turn the usual order of things upside down, making it seem quite natural that a dinner roll should fly past a dungeon door. His work — strange, beautiful, and often witty — restores a sense of mystery to a world that often seems to have lost its magic.

Customer Reviews:

A fascinating biography!.......2005-03-26

"I don' t believe neither in the unconscious, nor that the world represents before us as dream, except when we are asleep". René Magritte.

Rene Magritte' s work and the thought in which it 's based constitute a special case in the modern art story. H studied at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Brussles during the last years of theWW1. And together with E.L.T. Messens, Camille Goemans, Marcel Lecomte and Paul Nogué, he formed a kind of Belgian surrealist group. In 1927 he established close ties with Breton and Eluard, moving back to Brussels in 1939 until his death in 1967.

He began as a Cubist and his first Surrealist pictures were painted after 1925. In his search of the unfathomable mystery that surrounds to things and living beings. So starting from daily reality, he follows a distinct route, he best for the logic in the multiple associations and ideas. Being an avid reader of detective stories and a big fan of Edgar Allan Poe, you may understand why his style fits so well defined in this category. He painted isolated fragments of objects set in landscapes in the same vein of De Chirico his most remarkable influence received. And according Scheneede's opinion "If we regard Duchamp as the prototype of the scandalous, Man ray the prototype of the inventive and Max Ernst the prototype of the inspirative artist, Magritte have to be called the prototype of the intellectual artist". That' s why Magritte developed the symbolism mixing elements of the reality and facing them with itself in such original way supporting in just an unique logic puzzle as anyone else. Dali, in the other hand blended reality with archetypical dreams or reality surrounded by unconscious gaze gifted with a major doses of black humor and cynicism.

The author Jacques Meuris is emeritus Professor of the Superior School of Visual Arts in Brussels and makes an admirable artistic effort with exquisite reproductions of this notable artist: an authentic icon among the Surrealist giants. Specially recommended for any kind of reader who is really interested in knowing the most intimate details about the life and works of R.M.

More large (good quality) pictures would have been better.......2004-05-26

In my opinion, the most important thing about a book about a pictorial artist is (usually) the actual pictures shown(including the quality of the reproductions), and I feel in this respect this book falls rather flat. Not only are there not enough large (full or half page) pictures for a book of this size (216 pages) - some of them are poor quality reproductions (a painfully common feature of art books) - why do paintings vary so much between different reproductions?

Instead the book is mainly concerned with excessively wordy discourses on Magritte and his work. I'm not saying I didn't find any of it interesting, but the information and insight I gleaned after 8 hours of reading could have been put over with half as much text. I don't have a problem with writers indulging in intellectual analysis, so long as it is concise and well written, and this wasn't always the case.

Incidentally, Magritte by Richard Calvocoressi (Phaidon - April 1993) is much shorter but has much better pictures in it.

(review altered 27 May 2005, partly to remove British slang words that may have caused confusion)

More for your money.......2001-05-21

As the description above states, this book contains 400 illustrations covering Magritte's entire career. I found that after reading "The Essential Magritte," this was a perfect continuation in my introduction to this man's work. The price is also unbeatable, considering what some art books go for these days. Well written and illustrated, this book was a wonderful find.

Absolutely amazing.......1998-10-19

This book on Margritte includes fabulous images and great explanations and references to Magritte's life. I purchased this book in Dutch in Europe, for about four times the price listed here. This is an absolute bargain, and I sincerely regret not having purchased it from Amazon, although I greatly enjoyed having purchased it overall. Any Magritte fan cannot miss this book! Enjoy.

Average customer rating:

An influencial artist
Informative and Interesting
Opening Pandora's Box

Magritte and Contemporary Art
Stephanie Barron , Michel Draguet , and Dickran Tashjian
Manufacturer: Ludion/Los Angeles County Museum of Art
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9055446211
Release Date: 2006-11-15

Book Description

Magritte's seminal painting "The Treachery of Images (This Is Not a Pipe)" is a Surrealist and Modernist masterpiece that has become an instantly recognizable pop culture icon. It's also an excellent image with which to begin a serious discussion about the meaning(s) of representation. While many books and exhibitions have undertaken to survey the work of Magritte, and while many have acknowledged his profound impact upon other artists of his generation, none has yet studied the precise connections between Magritte's work and today's top contemporary artists. In The Treachery of Images, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art brings together more than 50 of the most important Magrittes with an equal number of very significant works by contemporary artists, both cool and edgy, including Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, Vija Celmins, Joseph Kosuth, Sherrie Levine, Richard Artschwager, Jeff Koons, Martin Kippenberger, Jim Shaw, Raymond Pettibon, Robert Gober and Marcel Broodthaers. Among the distinguished contributors are the internationally renowned art writer Thierry de Duve, co-curator Michel Draguet (director of the Musees Royaux de Bruxelles), critic Pepe Karmel and art historian Dickran Tashjian. Chapters and interviews are devoted to Ruscha, Celmins, Gober and Artschwager, among others.

Customer Reviews:

An influencial artist.......2007-04-17

Magritte is possibly the most influencial artist -along with Warhol- of the second half of the XXth century. This book, a catalogue for a ground-breaking exhibition held at the LACMA in 2006, thoroughly and vividly studies this influence by confronting his work to those of many of today's best artists (Jasper Johns, Ed Rusha, Vija Celmins and many more). All of them, either through their works or through the interviews carried out on the occasion of that show and published in this book, acknowledge their debt to the Belgian master who taught them to see in another way. The lesson to be drawn from this book is indeed that what we see may not be what we see, that the obvious may not be so and that the ones who can make us understand this are the artists themselves.

A treasure trove of illustrations, many of works belonging to private collections, enhance the already high quality of the text.

Informative and Interesting.......2007-01-11

Good insights, written by a number of writers, on the art of Magritte. Some articles more insightful than others; some easier to understand than others. Covers why he is important and how he's influenced other contemporary artists. Overall, thumbs up.

Opening Pandora's Box.......2006-11-19

Los Angeles County Museum of Art has a hit on its hands! 'Magritte And Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images' is one of the most delightful and intelligent exhibitions to be mounted in a long time. Not only does the exhibition pay homage to Rene Magritte with some fifty examples of his paintings, but creatively juxtaposes the works of contemporary artists who in one way or another have been profoundly influenced by Magritte, if not by his imagery and facile wit, but by his impact on the art scene since his death in 1967. Stephanie Barron and Michel Draguet have made a museum experience that defies visual imagination and that feeling is fully transmitted to this superb catalogue.

With an informative introduction by popular artist Ed Ruscha and articles by Thierry de Duve, Draguet, Pepe Karmel and Dickran Tashjian this richly colorful volume investigates the influence of the ever-popular surrealist painter on such luminaries of the art world as Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, Vija Celmins, Joseph Kosuth, Sherrie Levine, Richard Artschwager, Jeff Koons, Martin Kippenberger, Jim Shaw, Raymond Pettibon, Robert Gober and Marcel Broodthaers. The side-by-side addition of works by these artists in tandem with comments from them makes for delicious reading and viewing.

The design of the hefty volume is superb, maintaining the sophisticated ambience of the show itself. No matter the readers' relationship to art, this is a magical volume that is endlessly entertaining and informative. A very fine gift for art lovers! Grady Harp, November 06

Magritte/Torczyner: Letters Between Friends

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'Fine Realities.'

Magritte/Torczyner: Letters Between Friends
Rene Magritte , and Harry Torczyner
Manufacturer: Harry N Abrams
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

'Fine Realities.'.......2005-08-30

Harry Torczyner was Magritte's New York-based attorney, friend, and stateside promoter. Up until Magritte's unexpected death in 1967, Torczyner kept every letter that they exchanged (including replicas of his own responses) during their ten year correspondence. For this, readers should be exceptionally thankful: the letters turn out to be a brilliant and insightful collection.

Photographs, handwritten excerpts, and Magritte's working sketches are also interspersed throughout the anthology. Accompanying each letter is a French translation -- the language in which they were originally written -- and exact dates of composition are meticulously recorded. The highlights, of course, are Magritte's letters themselves, with his candid descriptions of inspiration, roadblocks, the creative process, and revelations about his own art and that of his contemporaries.

Not to be missed.

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intermixture of thought, play, and literary drum 'n' bass
a fine work
Language is a Prison
Great quick introduction to Foucault
"Treacle"?

This Is Not a Pipe (Quantum Books)
Michel Foucault
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0520049160

Customer Reviews:

intermixture of thought, play, and literary drum 'n' bass.......2001-06-01

This essay entitled "This Is Not A Pipe" is a fascinating excursion into the intriguing art of the great 20th C. Belgian painter. In this essay Foucault blurs the space between the critic and the subject being criticized. His thorough analysis inculcates his own hypertextual "isms" and replicating terminology that adequately reciprocates Magritte's offbeat beauty. From Foucault's view of what he considers the two principles that ruled painting (European painting?) from the 15th C. to the 20th C., to the relationship between resemblance and similitude, the mystery and static of a Magritte painting is transported onto the pages of this book. Ultimately this text is an interesting display of the interplay between text, image and the elements inculcated in the analysis thereof.

a fine work.......2001-03-05

if you consider this treacle then you certainly lack any real insight into philosophy or art criticism of the 20th century; either that, or you're carrying some kind of baggage or childish grudge.

foucault offers us just one interpretation of magritte's _pipe_, and some thought in general about art, representation and the sign. it's really just part of an on-going discussion. it's a shame he's dead; he'd have loved usenet.

in any case, this book is one voice in a chorus of discussion on the matter; his is also an informed, intelligent, and original voice - albeit controversial (see review below for ruffled feathers).

this book stands on its own, but is definetly not a good introduction to foucault per se; I think it's best to start with a history of sexuality volume I, then read the introduction of history of sexuality volume II, and then you can pretty much read any foucault from there.

Language is a Prison.......2000-12-26

I read this in college while studying semiotics and surrealism, yet the message of Foucault should not be relegated to the exotic and extreme "isms" of academia. I found "Pipe" to be a marvelous and playful illustration of the tryanny of language and the Orwellian control of thought which follows. Readers of Postmodern thought, Zen, Marxism, Film Theory, Psychoanlysis, and Modern Art will find moments of illumination throughout.

Great quick introduction to Foucault.......2000-07-09

No, Foucault is never easy. He sometimes even writes in Foucault-ese. But the intellectual payoffs are well worth it. Seeing him approach a single painting -- which you can look at while reading the book -- is much less taxing than seeing him dissect huge topics such as the history of prisons or the history of sex. Sure, those bigger Foucault tomes carry immense rewards all their own... but for a good, stimulating, and challenging (but not TOO challenging!) introduction to Foucault's philosophy of seeing and of naming, this is a great read.

Perhaps this book is a better choice for philosophy or lit-crit fams than art / art history fans. The "artistic" value of the painting is really of not much importance to Foucault; he is more concerned with its self-referentiality, its use of meaning and names, and so on.

"Treacle"?.......2000-01-31

"If you are looking for a quick read"? What are you doing with Foucault when there's always another Tom Clancy? If you think that looking at pictures precludes thinking about them, then this book isn't for you.

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Magritte And Photography
Rene Magritte
Manufacturer: D.A.P./Ludion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9055445622
Release Date: 2005-09-15

Book Description

The sublime visions of Surrealist master Rena Magritte often began in a viewfinder. In this major study, the first of its kind, noted photography critic, author, and Magritte scholar Patrick Roegiers draws eye-opening connections between the artist's enduring paintings and his use of the emerging medium of photography, which he used as a hobby, as well as a serious component of his painting, and as an art in itself. Examining more than 200 previously unpublished photographs from Magritte's personal collection, Roegiers finds both important source material and illuminating biographical revelations. We see here pictures of friends--including the Belgian Surrealists Scutenaire, Nouga, and Mesens--and acquaintances, whom Magritte sometimes shot in stage-managed tableaux. We glimpse his family and especially his wife, muse, and model Georgette, posing whimsically and earnestly, as they decamp for Paris in 1927 and return to Brussels three years later. And perhaps most vitally important to understanding Magritte's work, his self-portraiture through photography provides crucial insight into the creation of his bowler-hatted icon and paintings such as La Clairvoyance, from 1936. A photograph of this last work shows the artist at the easel of the famous painting of himself painting a bird. Later in life, as Magritte's fame grew, he himself was also a subject of other photographers' pictures, including photographs by Duane Michals on Magritte's first trip to the United States in 1965 and by Adelaide de Menil in Texas, in which the artist amusingly trades his bowler for a Stetson. This clear-eyed, all-encompassing look at what Magritte saw through the camera, and what he did in front of it, adds substantially to our appreciation of the artist who gave us the eye of "Le Faux Miroir."

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Is this not a pipe?

Magritte
Jean-Michel Goutier , Renilde Hammacher , Bernard NoIl , Jean Roudaut , Rene Magritte , Bernard Noël , and Sarah Whitefeld
Manufacturer: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1891024663
Release Date: 2003-03-02

Book Description

A picture of a pipe is not really a pipe, and a daylight-filled sky can shine over a streetlamp-lit townhouse, and a painting of a window inside a painting of a sitting room can be the window in that sitting room, and a room-sized rock can gaze out of that room at the sea, and, of course, a man is a suit can have a green apple for a face. At least, that is, in the world of Magritte. And who wouldn't want to believe in that world, or at least take pleasure in the ability to recognize parts of it in our own? One of the most charming and beloved of the surrealists, Rena Magritte took a light, witty paintbrush and created a world both familiar and not--but always recognizable in our dreams. His plays on semiotics, identity, the idea of woman, the possibilities inherent in objects, and the idea that everything was not necessarily what it seemed--or what it was supposed to be--are celebrated here in an intelligent retrospective monograph, featuring more than 150 paintings, sculptures, objects, and works on paper. The organization of this catalogue paints Magritte as an innovator, and an artist who has had significant influence on contemporary creators. Accompanying essays, including an introduction by Alain Robbe-Grillet, inventor of the nouveau roman, consider Magritte's influence on modern and contemporary art. Magritte's relationships with his surrealist contemporaries Louis Scutenaire and Andra Breton, and the art dealers Edward James and Alexandre Iolas, are each revealed through individual art historical texts and a selection of unpublished letters. An illustrated chronology is included as well. This catalogue is published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris.

Customer Reviews:

Is this not a pipe?.......2007-04-08

The catalogue for a comprehensive exhibition at the Jeu de Paume in Paris held in 2003, this book is a very good, well-documented, well-illustrated study of this ubiquitous Belgian artist who has inspired so many contemporary artists and publicists. There is quite a lot of material available on Magritte and I would say this one is one of the safest bets. Daniel Abadie is a leading French modern art historian and curator and his signature is a token of quality.

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Great for beginner art lovers as well as experts-Fast read!

Magritte (World of Art)
Suzi Gablik
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0500201994

Customer Reviews:

Great for beginner art lovers as well as experts-Fast read!.......1999-09-16

This book illustrates the reader through Magritte's life while giving background to the works. I read this book for fun and subsequently decided to study Magritte in school. It discusses surrealism as a whole as well as the historical context of Magritte's work. This book got me hooked on Magritte!!

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Rene Magritte: The Empire of Images
Pierre Sterckx
Manufacturer: Assouline
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 284323509X

Book Description

Magritte said his sole goal was to think in images and then to combine them. This luxury set is a remarkable work on the strange world of a great artist.

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