Magritte: Colour Library

Phaidon Colour Library

by Richard Calvocoressi

The paintings of the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte (1898–1967) have exerted an extraordinary fascination, particularly since the enormous increase in awareness and popularity of his work during the 1960s. Magritte shows us a world of silence and isolation in which familiar objects are altered or juxtaposed in ‘impossible’ combinations in order to create a sense of disorientation and the absurd. Many of his most memorable paintings date from his three prolific years 1927–30, when he lived near Paris and was in close touch with the writer André Breton and other French Surrealists.

In his pre-war painting, stylistic concerns were of secondary importance to Magritte, whose main interest was in ideas or propositions about the world; for example, many of his paintings explore the relation between objects and words or between the image of an object and the object itself. He deliberately cultivated a cold, unemotive, ‘style-less’ style. This quality renders the images of violence and macabre sexuality in some of his works all the more disturbing. His own ‘impressionist’ and vache (ugly, crude) pictures of the 1940s have been rediscovered in the last few years by a younger generation of painters and critics keenly responsive to the later work of other masters of parody and allusion such as Picabia and de Chirico.

Richard Calvocoressi's highly successful introduction to Magritte was first published in 1979 and revised and enlarged by the addition of notes to the colour plates and many black-and-white illustrations.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1994

Reviews

[Bandit · Rating 4 out of 5]

To continue with my self education in art history, I picked up this book. Prior to reading it, I've known next to nothing about Magritte save for his famous The Son of Man, which oddly enough is not featured in this book. Other than that, this is precisely what I expect out of an art book. It was educational and accessible without being pedantic or academese. It represented Magritte as he went through different styles, although personally I'm glad he discovered de Chirico, because Magritte's surrealist work is by far his best. Seems like the man had a happy enough life and was a well adjusted individual, but there is an incredible claustrophobic darkness to his art, all to do with the loss of identity. His faceless creations and ever shifting uncertain landscapes, his clever changes of perspective and juxtapositions of animate and inanimate objects really fascinate me. The early works, Purism/Futurism/Cubism didn't really sing for me, but his later ones very interesting as well, particularly his self portraits. The book is huge, unwieldy really, but it pays off in having the large reproductions in color. Very informative book. Great introduction to an awesome artist. Highly recommended.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dude I love looking at Magritte art. Seriously he's one of two painters I'm good at identifying and caring about, ever since my friend dragged me to an exhibit at LACMA [redacted] years ago. But bro who wrote the words in this book and some of his assertions are not as cool, by a long shot. He's always like "Magritte definitely 100% meant this Freudian interpretation I'm making up" or "This is definitely the [superlative] image Magritte did" or "Look at all the surrealistic sadism isn't it so cool." 🙄

Anyway, I read this off and on for a couple weeks and it's mostly fine because at least you're looking at the art of Magritte!

[Francisco · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't know anything about Magritte, and now I do. It's not a deep dive into Magritte, but it will give you the essentials, and quite a few photos of his paintings. Magritte's work doesn't seem as deep as that of other surrealists. And it's not as whimsical or funny as some of his most popular paintings are regarded.