THE FIDELITY OF IMAGES. RENÉ MAGRITTE AND PHOTOGRAPHY

 

 

 

 

 

 

René Magritte (1898–1967) was a Belgian Surrealist painter. He took his first photographs in the late 1920s. According to Walter Benjamin, the Surrealists revived photography, because—in his words—they were able to prise the subject out of its shell and aura, and strived for the ideal, that is impersonal reproduction. Magritte’s treatment of photography was no different. It was no fetish for him; he used a simple camera, and was uninterested in technique and issues of authorship. His photos are private visual notes featuring representatives of Belgian Surrealism, the artist himself (in this case the authorship is unknown) and his wife Georgette. Other photographs are closer to Magritte’s painting. Similar motifs and ways of depiction can be seen in them: no formal complications, just a certain “oddness” of atmosphere, somehow occurring naturally on its own.

 

Exhibition organised by the International Cultural Centre in Krakow and Wallonia-Brussels Representation in Warsaw.

 

 

 

THE FIDELITY OF IMAGES. RENÉ MAGRITTE AND PHOTOGRAPHY

Curator: Natalia Ĺťak

 

Grand opening: 17.04.2012, 6 p.m.