“I cannot start painting until I have the picture completely worked out in my head. It develops slowly. I work with a drawing book. Inspiration gives me an image: I feel a drive to paint a cloud, perhaps a hundred. And i surround them with forms the meaning of which escapes me until I am once more visited my inspiration and I know that what is suitable under the cloud is a crystal glass”
For Magritte, the only thing that his canvases purported to show was the mystery that existed in the visible world. He painted his thoughts, not his dreams, seeking not to transport the viewer to a mythical far-away land, nor to a fantastical, astral realm, but instead to reveal the mystery that is inherent in reality.
René Gislain Magritte was born on November 21st, 1898 to Lessines in Belgium to a modest family. His childhood will be marked by the suicide of his mother. At the age of fifteen, he meets Georgette Berger that he will marry in 1922. During all his life, she will remain his unique model and muse. In 1915 Magritte settles down in Brussels and creates its first impressionist works. He studies at the Academy des Arts de Brussels from 1916 till 1918. After a first period influenced by cubism, he turns to surrealism. He works as graphic designer in a wallpaper factory. From then on, his art will try to demonstrate that the glimpse of reality is only mystery, if we go out of our usual and logical habits. His works often play on the gap between an object and its representation. From 1927 till 1930 he lives in the Parisian suburb and gets in touch with the group. In the unusual atmosphere of certain surrealist realizations, Magritte adds a whole range of familiar objects. Upon his return in Belgium, he becomes the leader of the Belgian surrealists. Between 1951 and 1953, he paints an immense fresco the casino of Knokke-le-Zoute. The rest of its life consists of Belgian and international exhibitions…
Magritte died in Brussels on August 15th 1967 at 69-year-old, having painted more than 1000 paintings, as well as gouaches and collages. His wife will bequeath the works of her husband to diverse Belgian public collections.
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