Magritte – Life Line (exhibition at Amos Rex, Helsinki)

René Magritte: La Mémoire. 1948. Oil on canvas. 60 x 50. CR666. Collection of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB), inv. 6.371. Photo: Amos Rex.

René Magritte: from the series À la rencontre du plaisir. 1962. Oil on canvas. Collection privée.

René Magritte: Le Noctambule. 1928. Oil on canvas. 55 x 74. CR271. Museum Folkwang, Essen. Photo: Amos Rex.

The exhibition:
Magritte – Livslinjen / Magritte – elämänviiva / Magritte – Life Line.
Exhibition at Amos Rex, Helsinki, 8.2. – 19.5.2019.
In collaboration with MASILugano.
Curated by Xavier Canonne and Julia Waseige. In collaboration with Fondation Magritte.
Director: Kai Kartio. Organizational coordination: Laura Gutman, in collaboration with Niclas von Bonsdorff, Anastasia Isakova, Susanna Luojus, Itha O'Neill, Katariina Timonen.

The book:
Magritte: La Ligne de vie. Lugano: Museo d'arte della Svizzeria italiano, 2018.
Read in English:
Magritte: Life Line. Edited by Xavier Canonne, Julie Waseige, Guido Comis. ISBN 978-88-572-3897-6. Hard cover, 198 p. Milano: Skira editore S.p.A., 2018.

Opening, Amos Rex, 7 Feb 2019.

Official introduction: "In spring 2019, Amos Rex will be showing the works of the Belgian painter René Magritte (1898–1967) for the first time in Finland. Magritte, who is considered a leading figure in Surrealism, is particularly known for his works that turn everyday reality upside down; an apple fills a whole room and a nose becomes a pipe. The familiar is suddenly bafflingly strange."

"The goal of Magritte’s various surrealistic periods was to solve the enigma of being human – Magritte sought an answer to the universal question of humanity through his art. He probed everyday reality in an attempt to grasp the mysteries hidden within."

"The exhibition puts the artist himself centre stage: it is constructed around Magritte’s Life Line lecture, given in Antwerp in 1938. This was one of the rare occasions when the inscrutable artist revealed his working methods and artistic motivations. Magritte had otherwise always refused to explain his works, which gave glimpses of what “the mystery of the world” might look like in pictorial form."

"The works on display give a multi-faceted view of the development of Magritte’s working process in different periods. The phases of Magritte’s life and his ideas lend wings to this journey through the artist’s chequered career, right from the early days of Surrealism to his “Vache period”. Besides the visual arts, the supplementary programme for this exhibition by the cinephile artist also extends to Bio Rex’s silver screen in the guise of the silent film serial Fantômas by Louis Feuillade."

"The exhibition is realised in collaboration with the MASI, Museo d’arte della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, Switzerland. The curators are two Belgian Surrealism experts: Director of the Musée de la Photographie à Charleroi, Xavier Canonne; and art historian Julie Waseige."

Magrit­te's Sur­re­al­ism

"Surrealism is a movement in modern art, literature and film that was at its most influential between the world wars, but its heritage can still be seen in the visual arts today, too. It sprang up as a protest against realism and Cubism – Surrealism literally means “being above the real”. The movement was led by the French poet André Breton, and the ranks of famous surrealists include Salvador Dali and Joan Miró. The Surrealists emphasized art that comes about without the conscious control of reason, aesthetics or morality, and were interested in dreams and psychoanalytic theory."

"René Magritte and his Belgian Surrealist circle, nevertheless, diverged from the mainstream in their use of reality as a tool for calling that very reality into question. Magritte was not so interested in the subconscious, but used his art to investigate reality as an untrustworthy, ideological structure. Chopping it up and borrowing elements from it, nevertheless, allowed him to address fundamental questions about human existence – in Magritte’s words “the mystery of the world”." (Official introduction)

"L'art de peindre est un art de penser"
 – René Magritte

Today I visited my first René Magritte exhibition. Magritte imagery is certainly familiar from reproductions, and I have always considered Magritte one of the great surrealists. At the same time I have had a tendency to find aspects of his work decorative and ornamental, and to see Magritte an artist-designer in the twilight area between pure art and advertising / graphic design. Indeed, Magritte also created wallpaper designs, advertisements and book illustrations. He was a hard-working professional who often created his works in series. As have many other artists at least since the Renaissance. Andy Warhol was certainly not the first artist to have had a Factory.

Magritte had no factory, or he was the factory. He was a nine-to-five artist, very productive and creative all his life. He spent a lot of time in finding concepts and worked efficiently as soon as the concept had matured. He was an idea-driven painter. The idea came first, the vision followed, and from the ideas and the visions he could produce many variations. The first work was usually an oil painting, and the follow-ups could be in gouache.

Reading the excellent book to the catalogue edited by Xavier Canonne, Julie Waseige, and Guido Comis I realize that I have been wrong in my suspicions about Magritte as a commercial assembly line artist. On the contrary, he was a committed surrealist since the beginning of the movement and to the end of his life. He was politically radical, close to communism, although keeping a distance to political leaders. His mission was always revolutionary. For decades René lived in frugal circumstances but since the 1940s the Magrittes could enjoy a life of ease thanks to the commitment of wealthy American collectors. He lived a very orderly life together with his wife Georgette. Perhaps a little like Sigmund Freud: those with revolutionary views may prefer a conventional lifestyle. But above all, it was a life of love. Love and revolution were the surrealist watchwords. Georgette was René's great love, model and inspiration.

Revolution was inherent in Magritte's mission to see otherwise. There is a marvellous unity and consistency in Magritte's oeuvre, a commitment to see differently, to challenge our way of seeing, to think laterally. Magritte's works are not only pictorial. Words are important, too, and Magritte created many word paintings. The titles of his paintings are meaningful but have usually nothing to do with the imagery. Rather the titles are humoristic puns that undermine interpretation. Magritte's entire work has a philosophical dimension, it is a personal Kritik der reinen Vernunft. In fact, his work is also a critique of seeing itself, of visualization. Edgar Allan Poe was important for Magritte.

All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.

It is essential to see Magritte "live", "in the flesh". In reproduction some of his works resemble advertising illustrations, but in this exhibition at close range they come alive. It is rewarding to examine the paintings from different distances. At close range one can usually observe a dynamic and vigorous brushstroke beyond photorealism. Or discover extremely fine and fussy brushwork in a deceptively simple image such as La Chambre écoute in which an outsized green apple fills an entire room. The protective glass is non-reflecting and so subtly installed that it is practically invisible. The Magritte show, the second main exhibition at Amos Rex, is its first traditional main endeavour. The opening number was the mind-boggling digital & virtual reality extravaganza, teamLab's Massless. Now we know that Amos Rex is perfect for a good old-fashioned painting exhibition, too. The hanging and lighting are excellent.

The book is worth reading from cover to cover, and the illustrations include famous works not included in the exhibition. The Helsinki exhibition seems to be different from the Lugano one, but it covers the full range of Magritte from the early days to the 1960s and includes all stages of his evolution. My favourite Magritte series L'Empire des lumières is not included in the Helsinki exhibition, and my favourite painting in the Helsinki exhibition, À la rencontre du plaisir (see image above), is not illustrated in the catalogue. The selection of illustrations in the book is excellent, but the colour reproductions fail to do justice to the originals. They are flat and tame in comparison with the actual paintings.

The exhibition and the catalogue are a wonderful adventure in the surrealistic dimension of the insolite, the uncanny, das Unheimliche. Magritte never lost his special talent in finding his way into that secret region. Nor his professional ability to paint his ideas with striking precision.

...

Like surrealists in general, all his life Magritte was an ardent film buff. Luis Buñuel was a friend of his. In the exhibition is included Le Retour de flamme (1943), his riff on the famous Fantômas book cover art (1911, artist unknown). Magritte replaced the bloody dagger in the hand of Fantômas with a rose. In the film poster for Louis Feuillade's Fantômas (1913-1914) the same image was used but the hand was empty. In the 1960s Magritte also painted a portrait of Alfred Hitchcock.

René Magritte: Le Retour de flamme. 1943. Oil on canvas. 65 x 50. CR535. Private collection. Courtesy Foundation Magritte, Brussels. Photo: Amos Rex. Hommage to the original Fantômas book cover art (1911, artist unknown).

Belgian and French surrealists in dream state around René Magritte's painting La Femme cachée (1929). The photograph was reproduced in La Révolution surréaliste, no. 12, December 1929. Photo from the book to the exhibition: Magritte: La Ligne de vie. The 16 photomatons with the surrealists with their eyes closed were compiled by André Breton. Les portraits de seize surréalistes les yeux clos, à savoir de gauche à droite et de haut en bas: Maxime Alexandre, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Luis Buñuel, Jean Caupenne, Salvador Dalí, Paul Eluard, Max Ernst, Marcel Fourrier, Camille Goemans, René Magritte, Paul Nougé, Georges Sadoul, Yves Tanguy, André Thirion, Albert Valentin.

René Magritte and Georgette Magritte in a photograph by René Magritte: L'Ombre et son ombre. 1932. Gelatin silver print. 7.8 x 8. Gift of Edward and Joyce Strauss, Englewood, New Jersey, to American Friends of the Israel Museum. © ADAGP, Paris. Accession number: B90.0282(e). Digital presentation of this object was made possible by: Nancy Wald, in honor of the memory of Benjamin Miller. - They met as teenagers in 1913. Their relationship was interrupted by WWI. They married in 1922. Georgette was the wife and le principale modèle for René.