Magritte (Hardback)
A Life
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The first major biography for our time, from the celebrated biographer of Cézanne
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
René 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 Beyoncé.
Magritte (Ebook)
A Life
Buy from
The first major biography for our time, from the celebrated biographer of Cézanne
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
René 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 Beyoncé.
Magritte (Paperback)
A Life
Buy from
The first major biography for our time, from the celebrated biographer of Cézanne
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
René 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 Beyoncé.
Reviews for Magritte
Tim Adams Observer
Kathryn Hughes Guardian
Michael Prodger, 'Best art books of 2021' The Times
Alexander C. Kafka Washington Post
Susan Swarbrick and Teddy Jamieson, 'The 50 best books to give this Christmas' Herald
Alexander Adams Art Newspaper
Publishers Weekly
Charles Darwent Literary Review
Alastair Sooke Daily Telegraph
Jo Livingstone The New Republic
Christopher Turner Apollo
Florence Hallett inews
Praise for Alex Danchev's Cézanne:
Danchev's Cézanne has... virtues of imaginative sympathy, independence of mind, and wide scholarship. He writes as if Cézanne's life and character are as immediately present before him as is the art.
'
Julian Barnes Times Literary Supplement
Sunday Times
John Golding CBE, Emeritus Professor of the Royal Academy
Jackie Wullschlager FT
Alex Danchev
Alex Danchev was Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews. His books Cézanne: A Life (2012) won the Apollo Book of the Year Award in 2013, jointly with his translation of The Letters of Paul Cézanne (2013). He was also the author of a number of other internationally acclaimed biographies, and two influential collections of essays, On Art and War and Terror (2009) and On Good and Evil and the Grey Zone (2015); and editor of the best-selling 100 Artists' Manifestos (2011).