I have to start this review by saying that I am trained as an art historian, with a PhD in art and architectural history. I'm also a big fan of Rene Magritte's work. In essence, at least one of these things needs to be true in order to dive into this book. Even with that background, this book is dense and at times a bit overwhelming. Though, ultimately, I really enjoyed learning more about Magritte.

Alex Danchev, along with Sarah Whitfield (who finished the book after Danchev's passing) take an in-depth look at Magritte's life and career, as he goes from an artist not respected by his fellow surrealists to world-renowned. Danchev dives into the archives, drawing on plentiful primary source material to draw a portrait of the artist. Even for someone who is a fan of Magritte's work, there are a lot of details here that are relatively unknown. Each chapter is organized around a theme, while the book also moves roughly chronologically through his life. Danchev astutely connects Magritte's artistic output to what was happening in his personal life as well as the larger world. I particularly enjoyed learning more about paintings I was less familiar with and the context in which they were produced. The finished book includes 50 color plates of paintings, along with plentiful illustrations throughout.

As you might expect from a biography, there are A LOT of details here, some that were less interesting to me than others. The beginning of the book was especially difficult for me to get through, but that was more my own lack of interest in Magritte's childhood.

After reading this book, I certainly have a greater appreciation of Magritte and his artwork!


Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC and a finished copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Excellent detail bio of the wacky artist and his world. Really drew me into his world. Learned so much about his background, suicide of his mother and the j fluencies that went into the making of his art.

A thorough account of the life and work of Rene Magritte.

Danchev’s carefully researched account of Magritte’s contributions to Surrealism and to the art world in general is a good example of excellent research translating into a book that is…just ok.

The information is excellent is quality and breadth, but the writing lacks the panache and dynamism required for truly good nonfiction.

Artist monographs are tough hangs in general with a few very notable exceptions (due either to the extraordinary circumstances of the artist’s life or the extraordinary skill of the biographer).

This one has neither of those things, and even for someone like me who doesn’t mind slightly dry nonfiction and has multiple Art History degrees, it mostly feels respectably researched and compiled rather than “good.”

The book does have some truly compelling, fun segments, but those mostly result directly from a direct account of a small incident in Magritte’s life.

𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨!

I’m a big fan of any form of art and I always found Magritte’s work impressive and phenomenal so when I received this book I was beyond excited. A remarkable biography, I loved every page of it.

Thank you Pantheon Books for this gifted copy.

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘪𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦: 𝘈𝘳𝘵, 𝘕𝘰𝘯-𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘔𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘪𝘳𝘴, 𝘉𝘪𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘴, 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘋𝘦𝘤𝘰, 𝘊𝘶𝘣𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘵-𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘮, 𝘔𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘵.

https://www.instagram.com/booksandcoffeemx/

I’m not going to lie I skipped so many passages because I could not turn a page for 10 minutes. I like Magritte. Compared to other surrealists, his works are bit less abstract and require more of Freudian analysis. But do I need to know this much about Magritte? Probably not.

It would be a great resource if I were to write a thesis on Magritte. There were so many things you cannot find on Wikipedia or little summaries in museums’ intros. But as a novice level fan, I had hard time keeping myself alert and awake enough to consume this information.

If you are super duper Magritte fan or planning to study him, you might find this book extremely helpful. However, it’s too detailed and not so engaging to read for ‘fun’.

If you ever wanted to know way too many things about Magritte, this is definitely the book for you. Magritte is one of my favorite artists. His particular mix of surrealism and existentialism (though I've never heard to him actually referred to that way) appeals to me a great deal. But I feel like I really didn't need to know so much about his early life, which seems to have been a giant running practical joke. Or something he made up and/or embellished along the way. It's hard to tell how much of this stuff is true. I'm not really sure that it matters. As a French speaker, I also found it distracting that the author kept trying to translate things for me. I have no idea what I thought I was getting into, but this didn't really do it for me.

It is well written. It flows nicely. And I think the author did a great job of putting together source materials. I just don't think he had a great deal to work with. Also, the author died before finishing this, so I wonder how different the finished product would have been if he had actually finished and done his own edits.