From 1930 to 1954 the great Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte (1898-1967) lived and worked in an undistinguished rented town house in suburban Brussels. Now restored, that 19-room house is a museum of the artist's life. You can visit most of the rooms but can only view through glass the dining-room-cum-studio where he painted many of his fantastical masterpieces while wearing a three-piece suit. You can even look through the famous window, with a view of nothing in particular, on to which Magritte projected images that would revolutionize art and the way we look at the world. That said, there is very little to see, even though the museum's founders have been diligent in uncovering bits and pieces of the artist's banal private life.However, since June 2, 2009, visitors have been able to enjoy the new Musée Magritte in a building of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. Located at the Place Royale, in the very center of Brussels, the museum displays the works of the surrealist artist, which belong to the museum, private collectors, as well as public and private institutions which have loaned their masterpieces. This multi-disciplinary collection is the richest in the world. It contains more than 200 works consisting of oils on canvas, gouaches, drawings, sculptures and painted objects as well as advertising posters, music scores, vintage photographs and films produced by Magritte himself.
Museum web site (click):
www.musee-magritte-museum.be/Portail/Site/Typo3.asp?lang=FR&id=languagedetect
Our strange neighbor adores cats and had them everywhere in her house. As if the dozen live cats were not enough, in every room in her house, she has framed prints, large and small, of the blessed animals.
ReplyDeleteShe says that she orders her canvas prints, like this one
http://en.wahooart.com/A55A04/w.nsf/OPRA/BRUE-8BWPVF by Franz Marc, from wahooart.com who delivers them. Perhaps they can take away a cat or two as well.