René Magritte 1948 la période vache at Schirn Kunsthalle on artrepublic.com
Exhibition running from Oct 30 2008
until Jan 04 2009
René Magritte numbers not only among the most important, but also among the most popular artists of the twentieth century. Often against the grain of the tendencies in the arts of his time, the Belgian Surrealist painter developed a unique and unmistakable pictorial language. His work's continuing crucial influence on later generations of artists and his impact on today's visual culture are almost without par. Many of his equally enigmatic and hard-to-forget solutions have been reproduced in the millions and become famous icons far beyond the world of art. However, a fascinating period of the artist's landmark oeuvre has remained nearly unknown: his so-called période vache. In 1948, Magritte made a group of paintings and gouaches distinctly different from the rest of his work forhis first solo exhibition in Paris. Relying on a new, fast and aggressive style of painting - and particularly inspired by popular sources such as caricatures and comics, but also interspersing his works with stylistic quotations from artists like James Ensor or Henri Matisse - Magritte, within only a few weeks, produced about thirty entirely uncharacteristic works that caused an outrage in Paris. The artist deliberately conceived the exhibitionas a provocation of and an assault on the Parisian public. Painting in anunexpectedly crude, playful, and intentionally "bad" manner, he reflectedhis own work and painting in general. Magritte thus anticipated strategies of painting current in the 1970s and1980s, which are highly topical again today. While only sporadically included in most retrospectives of Magritte's oeuvre, the works from thepériode vache will be assembled in the exhibition at the Schirn outside France and Belgium for the first time. Especially against the background of the last thirty years' art, this concentrated presentation will shed a new, surprising light on an extraordinary artist. With "René Magritte 1948. LaPériode Vache," the Schirn continues a series of exhibitions that started with "Henri Matisse. Drawing with Scissors" and "Paul Klee. 1933" and wasfollowed by "Max Beckmann. The Watercolors and Pastels" or "Picasso and theTheater," focusing on specific groups of works or certain aspects in the oeuvre of established masters of classical modernism. OPENING HOURS: Tue, Fri, Sat: 10.00 - 19.00, Wed - Thur: 10.00 - 22.00, Image Credits: RENÉ MAGRITTE LE GALET (THE PEBBLE), 1948, Oil on canvas100 x 81 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, © Charly Herscovici, London 2008 / c/o ADAGP, Paris RENÉ MAGRITTE L’ELLIPSE (THE ELLIPSIS), 1948 , Oil on canvas, 50,3 x 73 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, © Charly Herscovici, London 2008 / c/o ADAGP, Paris RENÉ MAGRITTE LE STROPIAT (THE CRIPPLE), 1948, Oil on canvas affixed to plywood, 59,5 x 49,5 cmCentre Pompidou, Paris, Musée national d’art moderne / Centre de création industrielle, © Charly Herscovici, London 2008 / c/o ADAGP, Paris  |
