RENê MAGRITTE
Now You See It, Now You Don't
by Angela Wenzel
In the Adventures in Art series (see Jockel, above), an introduction to Magritte that explains how some art tries to represent the real world, while other art purposely shows impossible things, and how RenÇ Magritte used realism to portray the imaginary. By placing common objects in unexpected places (a locomotive emerging from a fireplace, or a rock floating with a cloud above the ocean), Magritte showed viewers how even ordinary things became surreal. Other paintings, e.g., Magritte’s famous pipe, labeled “This is not a pipe,” explored the relationship of words and images. Wenzel probes each work carefully, explaining how Magritte’s paintings encourage viewers to question what they see. Large full-color reproductions allow readers to examine these mysterious works on their own, while the inclusion of a short biography and several black-and-white photographs of Magritte, his family, and his home offer a sense of the artist separate from his work. (Nonfiction. 8-11)