Magritte and photography - Patrick Roegiers

The extraordinary images of Surrealist master, Rene Magritte, often began in a viewfinder. In this major study, the first of its kind, noted photography critic and Magritte scholar, Patrick Roegiers draws revealing connections between the artist's paintings and his use of the emerging medium of photography, which Magritte used as a hobby, as a serious component of his painting, and as an art in itself. Examining more than 200 previously unpublished photographs from Magritte's personal collection, Roegiers traces Magritte's life and work through his photography, and uncovers important source material for the paintings. We see here pictures of friends (including the Belgian Surrealists Scutenaire, Nouge and Mesens) and acquaintances, often photographed by Magritte in stage-managed tableaux. We glimpse his wife, muse, and model Georgette, posing whimsically and earnestly as the couple decamp for Paris in 1927 and return to Brussels three years later. And perhaps most importantly, Magritte's photographic self-portraits provide crucial insight into the creation of the iconic bowler-hatted figure in Magritte's paintings, and of key works such as Clairvoyance (1936).Every image had meaning for Magritte. Using the lens as a way of confronting the visible, he photographed trivial objects, surroundings and situations in order to explore the most unpredictable reaches of the imaginary. This all-encompassing look at what Magritte saw through the camera, and what he did in front of it, adds substantially to our appreciation of the artist who gave us the eye of "The False Mirror".