Magritte

Magritte : David Sylvester

The purpose of this book, written in conjunction with the Magritte catalogue raisonné, is to look at the artist and his art in ways which lie outside the scope of that publication. It is selective of the works it deals with and it offers interpretations and evaluations of them; it discusses the long-term development of images and ideas; and it ventures opinions about events and patterns in the artist’s life.

Whereas the catalogue – both in the entries and in the detailed career biography which it contains – provides support for virtually every factual statement with documentary evidence and/or close arguments, this book provides such evidence or reasoning only rarely – on occasions when pedantic details seem significant and nor merely useful or entertaining. But in general the reader who wants substantiation of the stated facts is asked to find it in the catalogue raisonné. This does not apply to certain facts outside the range of a career biography, facts which in any case are derived from reports that have to remain unattributed. 

Where Magritte’s title for a work is known, it is given in the captions and the index both in French and in an English translation; where there is uncertainty, the presume title is prefaced by a question mark; where the work is known to have been left untitled, it is listed as ‘Untitled’; where the title is altogether unknown, a description of the image is given in English. Dates attached to works by Magritte indicate the year of completion. 

The present edition contains several minor revisions and corrections to the original British and American editions. Numerous illustrations have been added and a few have been omitted.