Magritte (Big Series Art) (Hardcover)

~ Jacques Meuris (Author) "How does one become an artist?..." (more)
Key Phrases: picture entitled, Courtesy Galerie Isy Brachot, Pop Art, Edward James (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though full of subconscious upwellings and startling conjunctions of seemingly unrelated objects, Rene Magritte's paintings are not dreamscapes, according to French art critic Meuris. With every painting, the Belgian surrealist, whose work is "governed by 'thought,' " challenges his viewer's intellect and assumptions about reality. Observes Meuris in Magrittian fashion: "Magritte is not a painter, while yet being a great painter." While the paradox of the paintings of burning tubas remains largely unsolved, other images are successfully unraveled and the heavy French intellectual baggage one might expect is avoided. Meuris also looks at Magritte's little-known photographs, short films, sculptures and surreal objects in this illuminating, delightfully illustrated volume that reaffirms the artist's stature as it traces the fine line he toes between reality and illusion.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"I don't believe in the unconscious, except when we are asleep." Magritte. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Taschen (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3822872156
• ISBN-13: 978-3822872154
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,673,406 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely amazing, October 18, 1998

By A Customer

This book on Margritte includes fabulous images and great explanations and references to Magritte's life. I purchased this book in Dutch in Europe, for about four times the price listed here. This is an absolute bargain, and I sincerely regret not having purchased it from Amazon, although I greatly enjoyed having purchased it overall. Any Magritte fan cannot miss this book! Enjoy.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More for your money, May 21, 2001

By	"xboingox" (Overland, Missouri United States) - See all my reviews

As the description above states, this book contains 400 illustrations covering Magritte's entire career. I found that after reading "The Essential Magritte," this was a perfect continuation in my introduction to this man's work. The price is also unbeatable, considering what some art books go for these days. Well written and illustrated, this book was a wonderful find.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More large (good quality) pictures would have been better, May 26, 2004

By	Jenny Gilford (Linlithgow Bridge, West Lothian Great Britain) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Magritte (Big) (Paperback)

In my opinion, the most important thing about a book about a pictorial artist is (usually) the actual pictures shown(including the quality of the reproductions), and I feel in this respect this book falls rather flat. Not only are there not enough large (full or half page) pictures for a book of this size (216 pages) - some of them are poor quality reproductions (a painfully common feature of art books) - why do paintings vary so much between different reproductions?

Instead the book is mainly concerned with excessively wordy discourses on Magritte and his work. I'm not saying I didn't find any of it interesting, but the information and insight I gleaned after 8 hours of reading could have been put over with half as much text. I don't have a problem with writers indulging in intellectual analysis, so long as it is concise and well written, and this wasn't always the case.

Incidentally, Magritte by Richard Calvocoressi (Phaidon - April 1993) is much shorter but has much better pictures in it.

(review altered 27 May 2005, partly to remove British slang words that may have caused confusion)