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.
Alex Danchev, who died as he was finishing this biography, was the author of Georges Braque and Cezanne: A Life, as well as a new translation of The Letters of Paul Cezanne. He was a professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, where his archive resides. Sarah Whitfield is an art historian. She is the coeditor of Rene Magritte: Catalogue Raisonne, and she serves on the Rene Magritte authentication committee.
Title: Magritte: A Life
Author: Danchev, Alex
ISBN: 9781781250785
Binding:
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
Publication Date: 2023-01-05
Number of Pages: 480
Weight: 0.6502 kg
Diligent and insightful ... Danchev proved an indefatigable researcher, and Sarah Whitfield does full justice to his labours -- Tim Adams * Observer *
A virtuosic portrait of a star surrealist ... surely the definitive full-length biography ... immaculately researched, deeply felt -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *
The first significant biography of the artist -- Michael Prodger, 'Best art books of 2021' * The Times *
Insightful and broad-reaching -- Alexander C. Kafka * Washington Post *
Offers enthralling insight into the man behind the easel -- Susan Swarbrick and Teddy Jamieson, 'The 50 best books to give this Christmas' * Herald *
Absorbing, masterful ... there are no lapses in this lively biography ... Magritte: A Life recounts the artist's life in a sympathetic and comprehensive manner, never reducing the mystery of one of the most influential of modern artists -- Alexander Adams * Art Newspaper *
[A] monumental biography of the inimitable surrealist artist ... sure to be the definitive account of the extraordinary artist's life * Publishers Weekly *
This is a fine book, and Whitfield's tenth chapter, covering the last twenty years of its subject's life, does Danchev's efforts full justice ... for those who love Magritte and those who do not, Danchev's biography will come as a revelation -- Charles Darwent * Literary Review *
Exemplary ... a scintillating read -- Alastair Sooke * Daily Telegraph *
Danchev's picture of [Magritte] is pointillist and enormous in scope. It is full of shock, for the casual Magritte fan who knows little about his life ... Biographies usually attribute weight to moments or eras in a person's life, building a narrative which will explain the artworks, but this one attempts no such thing ... Magritte: A Life paints scenes, all taken from life, but not forced into the realist mode which can constrain works of this type. -- Jo Livingstone * The New Republic *
A fascinating portrait -- Christopher Turner * Apollo *
Magritte could hardly be in safer hands -- Florence Hallett * inews *
Praise for Alex Danchev's Cezanne: Danchev's Cezanne has... virtues of imaginative sympathy, independence of mind, and wide scholarship. He writes as if Cezanne's life and character are as immediately present before him as is the art. -- Julian Barnes * Times Literary Supplement *
A brave new life of Cezanne ... much of this new material successfully illuminates Cezanne's inner life. An important book. * Sunday Times *
This is the best account of [Cezanne's] astonishing career and Danchev responds to the challenge with great sensitivity and genuine brio. This is a book which will survive the test of time. -- John Golding CBE, Emeritus Professor of the Royal Academy
The most engrossing biography of an artist that I have read for years. With lightness of touch, depth of thought, a vast cultural hinterland and an assured understanding of painting, Danchev marvellously brings to life Cezanne the man, as well as the pioneering artist called the father of us all by Picasso. -- Jackie Wullschlager * FT *
