Xavier Canonne Bücher

A richly illustrated book that dives into Ren� Magritte's photo and film archive, revealing a lesser-known side of the surrealist master. In this richly illustrated book, Xavier Canonne, director of the Museum of Photography in Charleroi, dives into Ren� Magritte's photo and film archive, revealing a lesser-known side of the surrealist master. Discovered in the 1970s, more than ten years after the artist's death, this collection gives us access to a family album, an informal Magritte, from his childhood to the last years of his life. We see Magritte with his parents and brothers, as a newly married man with his wife Georgette, and with his contemporaries in the Brussels Surrealist group. Spontaneous snapshots are complemented by posed scenes, including improvised tableaux with his fellow artists, parodies of famous movies consciously arranged with Georgette, portraits of Magritte at his easel at home, and staged photographs as models for his paintings. Images where the artist and his friends hide their faces or turn away from the camera particularly resonate with his paintings and his investigation of the 'hidden visible'. While other Surrealists such as Man Ray and Raoul Ubac made photography an essential part of their work, Magritte remained a true painter. Yet this book demonstrates that his photographs and home movies are so pervaded with his spirit that they are inseparable from his oeuvre of paintings.

"La Louvière fut dès 1935 l'une des villes du surréalisme en Belgique, accueillant une Exposition surréaliste de caractère international après avoir vu l'année précédente la naissance du premier groupe surréaliste à être créé hors d'une capitale. Ce fut assez pour marquer définitivement cette ville industrielle de l'empreinte du surréalisme, tant dans les personnalités qui y vécurent que dans les collections publiques, celles de la Province de Hainaut, de la Ville de La Louvière et du Centre de la Gravure et de l'Image imprimée. C'est la première fois qu'un choix d'oeuvres et de documents surréalistes a été opéré parmi les trois collections et rassemblé dans cet ouvrage et l'exposition qui l'accompagne."--P. [4] of cover.