The discovery of René Magritte’s photographs in the 1970s, ten years after the painter’s death, shed new light on his creative process and the close links he maintained with the “mechanical image”, whether it be photographic or cinematographic. Other images have since appeared, from the albums of his relatives, which complement the study of painting-photography relationships in René Magritte’s work, but also the influence of cinema, an art of which Magritte was, as much as popular literature, very fond. Composed of 131 original photographs, most of them created by René Magritte, and a chapter featuring his amateur films staging with his accomplices, the exhibition “René Magritte. The images revealed “questions Magritte’s relationship to the mechanical image by drawing links with his work, revealing also an intimate Magritte.
Designed from three large private collections, made up of enthusiasts who have acquired photos over the years, from the collection of the Museum of Photography and the J. Nonkels Fund deposited there, the exhibition tells the painter as much as the user of photography. It includes Magritte’s family album with his childhood photos, his parents, his wife. We then see the painter’s intellectual family, the one that nourished him, the group of Brussels surrealists who from 1925 accompanied the development of his work. The exhibition also presents a facetious René Magritte, playing and having fun with his accomplices. Finally, there are the photos that served as models for his paintings and those he never used – Magritte considering himself no more a photographer than he wanted to be a “painter” – perhaps the most creative… The exhibition also lifts the veil on the influence of cinema on the artist, the surrealists having grown up with the Seventh art.
After Melbourne, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Seoul, the Museum of Photography welcomes, in Belgium, the exhibition René Magritte, The images revealed, curated by Xavier Canonne.
Musée de la Photographie de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles
Avenue Paul Pastur 11, 6032 Charleroi, Belgium
