Magritte: A Life

A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

‘The first significant biography of the artist’ Michael Prodger, The Times’ ‘Best art books of 2021’

‘Exemplary … a scintillating read’ Alastair Sooke, Daily Telegraph

‘For those who love Magritte and those who do not, Danchev’s biography will come as a revelation’ Literary Review

Rene Magritte’s surreal sensibility, deadpan melodrama, and fine-tuned outrageousness have all become inescapably part of our times. But these groundbreaking subversions all came from a middle-class Belgian gent, who kept a modest house in a Brussels suburb and whose first one-man show sold absolutely nothing.

Through a deep examination of Magritte’s friendships and his artistic development, Alex Danchev explores the path of an highly unconventional artist who posed profound questions about the relationship between image and reality, challenged the very nature of authenticity and whose influence can be seen in the work of everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyonce.