Editing René Magritte (section)

==Career==
Magritte's earliest paintings, which date from about 1915, were [[Impressionism|Impressionistic]] in style.<ref name="Cal9" /> During 1916–1918, he studied at the {{lang|fr|[[Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts]]|italic=no}} in [[Brussels]],<ref name="Guggenheim">{{Cite web|url=https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/rene-magritte|title=The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation|website=The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation}}</ref> under [[Constant Montald]], but found the instruction uninspiring.<ref name="Cal9" /> He also took classes at the Académie Royale from the painter and poster designer [[Gisbert Combaz]].<ref>Gisèle Ollinger-Zinque and Frederik Leen (Ed.), ''Magritte, 1898-1967'', Musées royaux des beaux-arts de Belgique, Ludion Press, 1998, p. 308</ref> The paintings he produced during 1918–1924 were influenced by [[Futurism]] and by the figurative [[Cubism]] of [[Jean Metzinger|Metzinger]].<ref name="Cal9" />

From December 1920 until September 1921, Magritte served in the Belgian infantry in the [[Flanders|Flemish]] town of [[Beverlo]] near [[Leopoldsburg]].  In 1922, Magritte married Georgette Berger, whom he had met as a child in 1913.<ref name="Meuris216" /> Also during 1922, the poet [[Marcel Lecomte]] showed Magritte a reproduction of [[Giorgio de Chirico]]'s ''[[The Song of Love]]'' (painted in 1914).  The work brought Magritte to tears; he described this as "one of the most moving moments of my life: my eyes ''saw'' thought for the first time".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2018/10/25/rene-magritte-every-time-i-look-at-it-i-feel-ill/|title=Every Time I Look at It I Feel Ill|last=Marler|first=Regina|journal=New York Review of Books|date=2018-10-25|access-date=2019-01-22|language=en|issn=0028-7504}}</ref> The paintings of the Belgian symbolist painter [[William Degouve de Nuncques]] have also been noted as an influence on Magritte, specifically the former's painting ''The Blind House'' (1892) and Magritte's variations or series on ''The Empire of Lights''.<ref name="Cassou (1984)">Cassou, Jean (1984) ''The Concise Encyclopaedia of Symbolism''. Chartwell Books, Inc. Secaucus, New Jersey. 292 pp. {{ISBN|0-89009-706-2}}</ref>{{rp|64–65 pp.}}

In 1922–1923, Magritte worked as a [[Drafter|draughtsman]] in a [[wallpaper]] factory, and was a poster and advertisement designer until 1926, when a contract with Galerie Le Centaure in [[Brussels]] made it possible for him to paint full-time. In 1926, Magritte produced his first surreal painting, ''The Lost Jockey'' (''Le jockey perdu''), and held his first solo exhibition in Brussels in 1927.<ref name="Guggenheim" /> The exhibition was poorly reviewed.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cotter |first=Holland |date=2013-09-26 |title=There's More Than Meets the Eye |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/27/arts/design/a-rene-magritte-survey-at-the-museum-of-modern-art.html |access-date=2024-05-10 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Depressed by the failure, he moved to Paris where he became friends with [[André Breton]] and became involved in the [[surrealism|Surrealist]] group. An illusionistic, dream-like quality is characteristic of Magritte's version of Surrealism. He became a leading member of the movement, and remained in Paris for three years.<ref name="rene">{{cite book|last=Barnes|first=Rachel |title=The 20th-Century Art Book|year=2001|publisher=Phaidon Press|location=London|isbn=0714835420|edition=Reprinted.}}</ref> In 1929, he was put under contract at Goemans Gallery in Paris along with [[Jean Arp]] and [[Yves Tanguy]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Camille Goemans - Matteson Art |url=http://www.mattesonart.com/camille-goemans.aspx |access-date=2024-07-13 |website=www.mattesonart.com}}</ref>

On 15 December 1929, Magritte participated in the last publication, No. 12, of ''[[La Révolution surréaliste]]'', with his essay "Les mots et les images", where words play with images in sync with his work ''[[The Treachery of Images]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://inventin.lautre.net/livres/La-revolution-surrealiste-12.pdf|title=Revolution surrealiste nb 12|website=inventin.lautre.net}}</ref>

Galerie Le Centaure closed at the end of 1929, ending Magritte's contract income. Having made little impact in Paris, Magritte returned to Brussels in 1930 and resumed working in advertising.<ref name="Meuris217">Meuris 1991, p. 217.</ref> He and his brother, Paul, formed an agency which earned him a living wage. In 1932, Magritte joined the [[Communist Party of Belgium|Communist Party]], which he would periodically leave and rejoin for several years.<ref name="Meuris217" /> In 1936 he had his first solo exhibition in the United States at the Julien Levy Gallery in [[New York City|New York]], followed by an exposition at the London Gallery in 1938.<ref>Meuris 1991, p. 221.</ref>

Between 1934 and 1937, Magritte drew film posters under the pseudonym 'Emair' for the German sound film distributor [[Tobis-Klangfilm|Tobis Klangfilm]]. The Leuven City Archive preserves seven posters designed by Magritte.

During the early stages of his career, the British surrealist patron [[Edward James]] allowed Magritte to stay rent-free in his London home, where Magritte studied architecture and painted. James is featured in two of Magritte's works painted in 1937, ''Le Principe du Plaisir'' (''The Pleasure Principle'') and ''La Reproduction Interdite'', a painting also known as ''[[Not to Be Reproduced]]''.<ref>"Professor Bram Hammacher", The Edward James Foundation souvenir guide, edited Peter Sarginson, 1992.</ref>

During the [[German occupation of Belgium during World War II|German occupation of Belgium]] in World War II he remained in Brussels, which led to a break with Breton. He briefly adopted a colorful, painterly style in 1943–44, an interlude known as his "[[Pierre-Auguste Renoir|Renoir]] period", as a reaction to his feelings of alienation and abandonment that came with living in German-occupied Belgium.<ref>Meuris 1991, p. 56.</ref>

In 1946, renouncing the violence and [[pessimism]] of his earlier work, he joined several other Belgian artists in signing the manifesto ''Surrealism in Full Sunlight''.<ref>Meuris 1991, p. 218.</ref> During 1947–48, Magritte's "Vache period", he painted in a provocative and crude [[Fauvism|Fauve]] style. During this time, Magritte supported himself through the production of fake Picassos, [[Georges Braque|Braques]], and de Chiricos—a fraudulent repertoire he was later to expand into the printing of forged banknotes during the lean postwar period. This venture was undertaken alongside his brother Paul and fellow Surrealist and "surrogate son" [[Marcel Mariën]], to whom had fallen the task of selling the forgeries.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/ceci-nest-pas-an-artist-1147477.html | work=The Independent | location=London | title=Ceci n'est pas an artist | first=Andrew | last=Lambith | date=28 February 1998 | access-date=22 May 2010}}</ref> At the end of 1948, Magritte returned to the style and themes of his pre-war surrealistic art.<ref>Meuris 1991, p. 61.</ref>

In France, Magritte's work has been showcased in a number of retrospective exhibitions, most recently at the [[Centre Georges Pompidou]] (2016–2017). In the United States his work has been featured in three retrospective exhibitions: at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] in 1965, at the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in 1992, and again at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013. An exhibition entitled "The Fifth Season" at the [[San Francisco Museum of Modern Art]] in 2018 focused on the work of his later years.<ref>Marler, Regina (25 October 2018). "Every Time I Look at It I Feel Ill". ''The New York Review of Books''. pp 8–12.</ref>

Politically, Magritte stood to the left, and retained close ties to the Communist Party, even in the post-war years. However, he was critical of the functionalist cultural policy of the Communist left, stating that "Class consciousness is as necessary as bread; but that does not mean that workers must be condemned to bread and water and that wanting chicken and champagne would be harmful. (...) For the Communist painter, the justification of artistic activity is to create pictures that can represent mental luxury." While remaining committed to the political left, he thus advocated a certain autonomy of art.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.autodidactproject.org/quote/magritte.html |title=René Magritte on the Revolutionary Artist vs. Folk Art & Stalinism |access-date=2014-06-28}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.musee-magritte-museum.be/Typo3/index.php?id=15 |title=Musee Magritte Museum |access-date=2014-06-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140903234654/http://www.musee-magritte-museum.be/Typo3/index.php?id=15 |archive-date=3 September 2014 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Spiritually, Magritte was an agnostic.<ref>{{cite book|title=René Magritte, 1898-1967|year=1994|publisher=Benedikt Taschen|isbn=9783822805466|page=[https://archive.org/details/renemagritte18980000meur_h1e1/page/70 70]|author=Jacques Meuris|quote=We shall not at this juncture risk analyzing an agnostic Magritte haunted perhaps by thoughts of ultimate destiny. "We behave as if there were no God" (Marien 1947).|url=https://archive.org/details/renemagritte18980000meur_h1e1/page/70}}</ref>

Popular interest in Magritte's work rose considerably in the 1960s, and his imagery has influenced [[Pop art|pop]], [[Minimalist art|minimalist]], and [[conceptual art]].<ref name="Calvocoressi 1990, p. 26">Calvocoressi 1990, p. 26.</ref> In 2005 he was 9th in the [[French Community of Belgium|Walloon]] version of ''[[De Grootste Belg]]'' (''The Greatest Belgian''); in the [[Flanders|Flemish]] version he was 18th.{{Citation needed|date=December 2022}}