René Magritte: Lifeline

The book presents about seventy paintings, gouaches and drawings by René Magritte and includes interesting studies by international researchers such as Julie Waseige and Xavier Canonne both on the artist’s poetic and art evolution. The volume’s starting point is Magritte’s lecture at the Royal Musée des Beaux-Arts in Antwerp held on 20 November 1938, today known as ‘La Ligne de vie’.

It was through a series of examples (that) on that occasion Magritte outlined the genesis of his art, endeavoring to define the thirteen years of surrealist painting. Although the visible manifestations of the World’s Mystery he continuously offers to us, he has anyhow refused to explain his works. This conference was one of the rare occasions in which the artist opened up to the public, clarifying his beginnings and the evolution of his painting until 1938, the period now recognized as the most representative of his entire career.

The book includes Magritte’s masterpieces before and after this date, when its diffusion and notoriety became international. It contains his most famous paintings but also documents, book catalogs, musical partitions and many photographs by René Magritte himself and his fellow artists, along with screenshots of his films so to give a wide overview on his entire artistic experience.