A SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR 'The first significant biography of the artist' Michael
Prodger The Times' 'Best art books of 2021' 'Exemplary ... a scintillating read' Alastair
Sooke Daily Telegraph 'For those who love Magritte and those who do not Danchev's
biography will come as a revelation' Literary Review René Magritte's surreal sensibility
deadpan melodrama and fine-tuned outrageousness have all become inescapably part of our times.
But these groundbreaking subversions all came from a middle-class Belgian gent who kept a
modest house in a Brussels suburb and whose first one-man show sold absolutely nothing.
Through a deep examination of Magritte's friendships and his artistic development Alex Danchev
explores the path of an highly unconventional artist who posed profound questions about the
relationship between image and reality challenged the very nature of authenticity and whose
influence can be seen in the work of everyone from Jasper Johns to Beyoncé.
