Magritte complete works?
al...@fearofdolls.com
get one book that has everything, at least every painting. As usual
with these types of art books, I have a hard time tracking down and
figuring which book to get, which is the most complete, so as to not
have to end up buying 4 books or more. Any recommendations?
Bill
Bill
The most complete book I've seen is a large, coffee- table style work
called simply Magritte. It's slick and glossy and has over 300 pages of his
work which (in my opinion) gives him much more attention than he deserves.
It's edited by someone named Daniel Abadie and published by something called
Distributed Art Publishers. If you find it, perhaps you'd come back and
explain Magritte to those of us who have our enthusiasm for him completely
under control. If a painter does a picture of a solid, well dressed pillar
of his community and paints the face of a clock where his head should be,
how should we interpret that ? As a deeply symbolic representation of the
dominant and over riding importance of the passage of time over the petty
and transient concerns affecting our lives and our rapidly approaching
deaths ? Or should we see it (as I do) as meaningless nonsense by someone
who knew HOW to paint but didn't know WHAT to paint ? Someone who hoped his
viewers would supply meaning where he was unable to do so and see something
profound where he supplied only obscurity ?
Regards Bill.
Bill
"Norman" <norman...@taschen.com> wrote in message
news:20060824100052.993$a...@newsreader.com...
> Magritte's work was done in a style called Surrealism. There are many good
> books you can read on the subject. A good basic place to start is
> 'Surrealism,' by Klinsohr-leroy. A pricey but more comprehensive study is
> 'Surrealism, Themes and Movements,' by Caws. I believe both are in print.
> It's easier to appreciate something if you understand it.
>
Why do you assume I'm interested in understanding surrealism ? If
I were an artist I would be probably want to know about all the varieties of
art work and artists floating around. From drip and drizzle phoneys to
paste and waste frauds. But I'm not an artist. I'm a collector and that
makes life SO much simpler. Art becomes a binary world. ALL of it can be
classified into one of two groups. Group one includes work that I might
consider hanging on my wall. Group zero includes EVERYTHING else..
Surrealism falls easily into group ZERO based upon the evidence presented to
my eye and my brain. And nothing an apologist or art critic writes or
publishes can move surrealism from Group zero to Group one.
Life is too short to spend time reading books on astrology,
phrenology or other areas which, to me, have little or no validity or
meaning in my life. But don't let me discourage YOU. Please buy and read
all the books on surrealism that YOU can find. But keep in mind that the
purpose of such books is mostly to goose a flagging market and try to
create buyers where no buyers exist. They are usually sponsored by art
dealers who have an embarrassing over-supply of stuff they can't seem to
unload. They are wildly over priced and costs are expected to be recovered
by sales to a limited groups of dupes who have more money than brains.
Have a nice day. Bill.