Surrealism

For many people, Magritte's works are the first to come to mind when the surrealism is mentioned. Magritte created a world of well-dressed men in bowler hats (a staple of pre-war European dress still happily embraced by Brussels' corps of business men on trains) around whom odd things happen (toys trains coming out of walls, houses with faces, a pipe bearing the legend, "this is not a pipe") without ever breaking their compsure. In Magritte's world, the unconsious is fully conscious as in dreams and we simply see with emotions on new world existing all around us all of the time. Magritte's works are to be found in every important collection of modern art. Magritte prints, however, are rare and scarce: he came late to printmaking and he only made two lithographs and about 18 etchings between 1962 and his death.

Biography:
1898 November 21, René François-Ghislain Magritte is born in Lessines, Hainaut (Belgium).
1912 March 12. The body of Magritte's mother is fished out of the water. She threw herself into the river Sambre. The family leaves for Charleroi.
1913 Meets his future wife, Georgette Berger.
1914 Enrols as pupil at the Academy of ...

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