Magritte / Renoir. Surrealism in full sunlight

Written in French.

From the beginning of the Second World War, René Magritte (1898-1967), struck by the similarity between the European climate under the Nazi yoke and that expressed by Surrealism, took stock of his work and reconsidered the founding values of the Surrealist movement.
For him, opposing joy and the promise of happiness to the despair of the Nazis is the only way to "transform the world", to quote André Breton.
Impressionism, which celebrates the joy of life, inspires him. From Auguste Renoir, he borrowed his iconography and technique, opening the chapter of a new style, known as "Renoir", a "surrealism in full sunlight".

The catalogue opens with well-known paintings from the 1930s, expressions of Magritte's concern about the warning signs of the coming catastrophe.
Then the paintings from his "Renoir" period are confronted with works by the master Impressionist and artists of his time such as Picabia, but also more recent artists such as Jeff Koons, revealing a possible posterity of his solar style.

Exhibition at the musée de l'Orangerie from February 10th 2021 to June 21st 2021.

Written in French.
192 pages / 130 illustrations

Rmn-Grand Palais Publishing - Co-publishing with the musée d'Orsay and the musée de l'Orangerie