Opening on 26 October, Magritte will feature more than 100 works and will be the first retrospective ever dedicated to the artist in Australia.
Presented in Naala Nura, the Art Gallery’s South building, the exhibition will take visitors on a journey from some of the artist’s earliest works, through to his landmark contributions to surrealism, and the renowned paintings of his final years before his death in 1967.
In addition to more than 80 paintings, the exhibition includes rarely seen photography, film and archival materials that shine a light on lesser-known aspects of his practice, revealing his subversive humour and artistic independence.
René Magritte (1898–1967) created some of the most iconic paintings of the 20th century’s surrealist movement, his art revealing the mystery and poetry of seemingly ordinary objects and places. A painter of ideas, he explored the relationship between reality and representation, between image and language, and his work continues to exert a profound influence on contemporary visual culture.
The Art Gallery of NSW has developed the exhibition with the close co-operation of the Magritte Foundation, Brussels, and with the partnership of the Menil Collection, Houston, home to the most comprehensive Magritte collection outside Europe. Magritte features major works loaned from collections in Australia, Belgium, Japan and the United States, the vast majority of which have never been seen in in this country.