This is not surrealism: Magritte’s manifesto and late work

Delve into the history of artist René Magritte and discover his philosophy, influences and relationships in lecture series produced in association with the exhibition Magritte at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

From Magritte’s beginnings in Brussels and his first surrealist paintings to his iconic images of apples, hats and pipes, gain an in-depth understanding of Magritte as a painter. The role of the painter, as he saw it, was to create pictures of ideas – best portrayed by images of things we have already seen but whose secrets we have never imagined.

Surrealism began as a literary movement, first in poetry and then a manifesto written by André Breton. 20 years after Breton’s first Manifesto of surrealism, Magritte wrote his own surrealist manifesto, Surrealism in the sunshine. Breton’s response was to call Magritte childish and exclude him from events held by the surrealists. In this lecture, Simon Weir will explore Magritte’s late period, free from Breton’s confining influence, where he achieved success in America and produced his greatest masterpieces.