René Magritte: The Artist’s Materials

The first book-length material study of the works of Belgian Surrealist René Magritte.
 
 René Magritte (1898–1967) is the most famous Belgian artist of the  twentieth century and a celebrated representative of the Surrealist  movement. Much has been written about his practices, artistic community,  and significance within the history of modernism, but little has been  documented regarding his process.
 
This volume examines fifty  oil paintings made by Magritte between 1921 and 1967, now held at the  Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. This technical study of his works  using noninvasive scientific imaging and chemical analysis reveals the  artist’s painting materials, his habit of overpainting previous  compositions, and the origins and mechanisms of surface and pigment  degradation. Of interest to conservators, scientists, curators, and  enthusiasts of twentieth-century art, this book expands our  understanding of Magritte the artist and provides new and useful  findings that will inform strategies for the future care of his works.