Colour illustrations:
162
b/w illustrations:
33

In 1938, René Magritte delivered the lecture entitled La Ligne de vie (Life Line), one of the rare occasions on which the artist talked about his work in public. During the hour-long lecture, he illustrated, with the aid of slides, the evolution of his work and revealed the techniques that had allowed him to create images characterized by a “disturbing poetic effect”.

Following the thread of the thoughts expressed in that lecture, this catalogue retraces his career from its beginnings, featuring over ninety of his works alongside others by artists such as Giorgio de Chirico and Max Ernst, whom Magritte included among his influences during the early years. It is thus possible to discover some of the sources of his inspiration and at the same time to appreciate the originality of the solutions he achieved.

This volume is not limited to works completed before 1938, when he delivered the lecture. By following the path provided by the artist, we learn how his approach to creation allowed him to find ever new sources of inspiration and to produce works of outstanding poetic force right up to the end of his life.

The book is edited by Xavier Canonne, director of the Musée de la Photographie of Charleroi and member of the Committee of the Fondation Magritte, and Julie Waseige, an expert on the painter’s works and formerly a researcher at the Musée Magritte, in collaboration withGuido Comis, curator at the MASI, who has worked alongside the curators to identify all the works presented here and to complete the critical analysis.