The great Belgian Surrealist. A sense of the amazing, the surprising, and the ridiculous in Magritte's paintings. It is impossible to overlook the influence of Rene Magritte (1898-1967) on contemporary art. His surrealistic painting turns the usual order of things ironically on its head, thus restoring mystery to a world that has lost its magic. His work typically conveys a sense of the amazing, the surprising, and the ridiculous - but also the unsettling. Without a specific message, Magritte's paintings nonetheless speak to us, creating a connection between opposites on an associative level. Thus a dinner roll can with complete naturalness fly past a barred dungeon opening. In discussing his art, Magritte spoke of 'inspired thoughts': he was indeed a painter-philosopher who thought in pictorial form and moved with seemingly playful lightness in the exalted atmosphere of his own imagination. Every book in TASCHEN's "Basic Art Series" features: a detailed chronological summary of the artist's life and work, covering the cultural and historical importance of the artist; approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions; and, a concise biography.

Author Biography

Marcel Paquet was born in 1947 in Jumet, Belgium. After obtaining his doctorate in 1978 from the Free University of Brussels with a thesis entitled "La Difference des Pensees de Kant et de Hegel dans la question de l'essence de l'art", he began work on a monumental "Encyclopedie philosophique de la peinture contemporaine". Dividing his time between Brussels and Paris, he has published a number of books on such subjects as Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Botero, and Hans Bellmer.