Plus joli en carte postale by veerle devos

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Plus joli en c Brussels is bracing for a welcome cultural stampede to the long-awaited Magritte Museum, opening on June 2. Veerle Devos and Kristof Dams get a sneak preview of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts’ new offspring

hile construction workers put the final touches to the building – primly Neoclassical on the outside, completely remodelled within – and a small army of security personnel receive their briefs, project director Virginie Devillez stands among the minorand masterpieces, scarcely able to contain her enthusiasm. “We may not have all of Magritte’s most famous works, but we are the only institution which can present a complete overview of his art. That’s because we [Brussels’ Royal Museum of Fine Arts] have the largest Magritte collection in the world,” she says, climbing the stairs still covered in protective plastic. “For the first time, we are able to present the collection in its entirety. We’re complementing it with archival materials and with works on loan from private collections, such as the Menil Foundation in Texas.” In all, more than 200 works are displayed chronologically and thematically on three floors, in a presentation designed by Magritte specialist Winston Spriet. “Nowhere else can you find such a complete overview of Magritte’s work. You really have to come to Brussels for that.” On the third storey, where the tour starts, the artist’s youthful works – advertising posters, experiments in abstraction and Purism, and his great, dark Surrealist beginnings – are exhibited along with documentation of his early life in Brussels. The second floor treats matters less well known to general audiences: Magritte’s close and merry band of Surrealist associates in Brussels, the war period, his Communist engagement or his controversial “Vache” period, named for a series of crass, aggressive works painted in a couple of weeks’ time for a show in Paris in 1948. Throughout, correspondence – Magritte was a prolific letter-writer – drawings, objects and silent video presentations provide insight into Magritte’s thoughts and ideas, as do pearls of his wisdom, inscribed (in French) on the gallery Mysterious walls: “So-called non-figurative art makes no more sense than a non-teachMagritte, ing school or non-nourishing cuisine”. at home in The first-floor gallery for temporary Etterbeek, exhibitions is being inaugurated with a 1965 24 www.thebulletin.be May 21 2009

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©DUANE MICHALS, COURTESY PACE/MACGILL GALLERY, NEW YORK

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"354 t museum selection of paintings with similar images but from different periods in Magritte’s career, testifying to the artist’s penchant for creating multiple variations on his own themes. The Magritte Museum aspires to be much more than a showcase: it aims to become the leading centre for the study of the artist’s work, on a par with Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum or the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern. The entire René Magritte archive is being put online, where it can be consulted by anyone who is interested. The same site will offer a virtual tour of the museum.

Magritte Blue “We want the Magritte Museum to be a meeting place for a mixed audience,” Devillez says. “We’re using different means to make Magritte’s work accessible to all visitors, regardless of their background, knowledge level or expectations.” The audio-guide is a must, as it features comments by Magritte himself, in his own voice and thick Walloon accent. Voiceover translations are given in the Dutch, English, German and Spanish-language audioguides. As for the quotes by Magritte which are written on the gallery

walls, they can be found in translation in the free brochures given to all visitors. Plans for the museum had been percolating for years, but financing was elusive, and proceedings were further complicated by repeated crises in the federal government. (The Royal Museum of Fine Arts is a federal institution.) The breakthrough was reached when French energy concern GDF-Suez promised €6.5 million in infrastructural equipment: climate control systems, multimedia and so on. In some respects, the museum’s long gestation has proved beneficial. Mia Prce, the museum’s press officer, says, “The Magritte Museum was first officially announced four years ago. Since then, a lot has been written about us worldwide, raising expectations. In mails and telephone calls we get from journalists and the general public, we sense a huge amount of interest. Many Americans and Asians even tell us they have postponed their trips to Europe so as not to miss the museum. It’s not a surprise, really. Magritte’s work has always had wide appeal. It influences all kinds of people: fashion designers and advertising. Musicians too are keen on him: Paul McCartney owns several Magritte paintings; John Cale and Paul Simon wrote songs about him. All in all, we expect a stampede.” This exploitation of his work probably would have been fine with Magritte, who was fascinated by the images he invented but cared little for his paintings, per se. On occasion, and much to his wife’s distress, he sold them straight off the wall of his home and thought nothing of making copies of them on request. He didn’t take paintings by others particularly seriously, either. Once, while visiting a museum in Florence, he spent no more than 20 minutes inside and came back out declaring: “C’est plus joli en carte postale” – “It looks better on a postcard.” Early on, he had a full time job as a commercial illustrator, and he remained an unabashed salesman of his own work. There is no special reason, then, why the museum should hold back on merchandising, except, perhaps, for good taste. The

Opening so

The Magritte Museum opens festively and free to all on May 30, from 10.00 to 22.00. Closed on May 31, it reopens in official mode on June 2. For ticket-holders, 1 Place Royale/Koningsplein, Brussels; for others, 3 Rue de la Régence/ Regentschapsstraat, Brussels, tel 02.508.32.11, www.fine-arts-museum.be

Clockwise from top: Magritte, far left, and Surrealist friends clowning around on a Sunday; the artist at his easel in Etterbeek; Georgette Berger, Magritte’s future wife, in Brussels, 1920 26 www.thebulletin.be May 21 2009

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shop carries the obligatory gadgets as well as the blue paint seen throughout the museum. It was developed especially for the occasion and named ‘Magritte Blue’. But with these exceptions, the stock is mostly edifying: next to visitor guides (for the general audience, for specialists and for children) there are academic analyses of Magritte’s art and books on philosophy and psychology which are close to the spirit of his work.

Beneath the bowler hat The shop is open to everyone: you don’t need a ticket to enter. The same goes for the velvet-draped screening room, where several films will be shown each day. Expect just about anything: “Magritte’s work was deeply influenced by popular culture, especially films and comic books,” says Devillez. “He had such eclectic taste that there is much to choose from: Surrealist and experimental films, Fantômas films, thrillers of his time and Laurel and Hardy slapstick – these were his particular favourites.” Magritte loved paradox, and he managed to embody it. On the face of it, his everyday life was as ordinary as his art is extraordinary. For 24 years, he lived with his wife Georgette in the quiet Brussels suburb of Jette, then moved to Etterbeek. He kept regular hours, walked his dog every day and always wore a suit and bowler hat, or so it seems. He never had a studio, but painted in his living/dining room in Jette and in a small room off the bedroom in Etterbeek. The Jette house is now a museum, but for practical reasons, there is no combined ticket offer. “The house can receive only seven thousand visitors per year,” says Devillez, “and it has only three of his paintings. It’s for real aficionados. Of course, visiting the home of the great Surrealist is a special experience.”

Top: The Secret Player, 1927; above: Black Magic, 1945, hung in the Magrittes’ bedroom in Etterbeek. It depicts Georgette, who bequeathed it to Brussels’ Museum of Fine Arts when she died in 1986 May 21 2009 w w w. t h eb u l l e t i n . b e 27

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