Magritte

Last Sunday, I -finally- visited the Magritte museum in Brussels. I would highly recommend everyone to visit this relatively young (open since 2009) museum. Details can be found here.

Although I grew up with an admiration for Magritte, I didn’t know anything about his two “other” styles: besides his surrealist works, he also painted some impressionist works (during the second world war) and in a “periode vache” (after the second world war).

Impressionist work by Magritte

Work from Magritte’s “periode vache”

These works were not that popular, and Magritte’s gallery holder in Paris told him to return to his old style. That must have been the best advice someone ever gave to the painter. He returned to his surrealist style, and produced some of my favorite paintings.

Magritte challenges our perception of day and night
I truly love how Magritte’s paintings challenge our perception of reality. They make me think and reflect on our world.

At the exhibition, booklets with citations of Magritte (which are displayed in French on the walls) are available. As food for thought, here are five citations of Magritte:

All that I desire is to be enriched by intensely exciting new thoughts.

The real value of art is measured by its capacity for liberating revelation.

To be surrealist is to banish the notion of ‘deja-vu’ and seek out the not yet seen.