Good book and recommended
Museum of Imaginary Art
By Michel Bhutto
Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House
A book to build a Western painting art museum is simply a fantasy!
——Excerpt from the preface to the Museum of Imaginary Art
The Museum of Imaginary Art includes Da Vinci and Michelangelo, who are familiar to Chinese readers, as well as a number of Western artists who are relatively unfamiliar to us. Beginning with Giotto and ending recently at the hit Basquiat at the auction scene, it spans almost 700 years of Western painting history. As michel Bhutto, the author's representative of the new French novel, said in the preface:
We once wanted to call these paintings "masterpieces", because all the selected works do not only meet the definition of conventional "masterpieces", they are simply what is called "works against the sky" in the modern sense.
Ultimately, we decided to call them "decisive works" in order to make people remember what they mean in the history of painting, and what they mean in the history of mankind as a whole.
Whether it is a unique masterpiece (such as the Zenith painting of the Sistine Chapel) or a work representing a school of painting (such as Impressionism). In short, these paintings have brought about changes, a wave gradually infiltrating the field of painting, and everything will no longer be the same as before.
Michel Bhutto (Representative of the new French novel and author of this book)
Michel Bhutto is one of the most famous contemporary French novelists. In addition to writing the novels that made him famous (the two most important ones are Change and Schedule), he also devoted himself to the field of art. Write art-related books, write prefaces to art works, arrange catalogs, and even play with four hands... He has engaged in dialogue with many contemporary artists. In 2013 he won the Académie française Literary Prize.
From wall to paper, from Giotto to Basquiat, in this book, the great writer Michel Bhutto combs the veins of The history of Western painting for us. He spoke as if chatting with an old friend, strolling through a fictional museum.
The content of this book is very rich, WeChat introduction can only be used as a "glimpse" of the introduction, the painter after the 105 works in the book, each has created a large number of works of art, in addition to the works published in the book, the editor also selected some other representative works of each artist, hoping that readers can understand him more comprehensively. In this issue, we select a Belgian surrealist painter and let us follow the eyes of the author Michel to admire René Magritte's masterpiece in this book, "The Art of Conversation IV"
Magritte's work is "the clearest surrealism", and his work has had a great influence on modern Western painting, especially Dalí, Marsonne and the younger generation of Pop artists.
Magritte believes that most of the subjects of painting are encounterable and unattainable, and it is a flash of inspiration that meets unexpectedly, and the same is true for the title of the painting. Most of his paintings were named by friends, both Belgian surrealist writers and poets.
He likes catchy names that are both beautifully worded and meaningful.
In The Art of Conversation IV, we see two people staring at the stone-clad building in front of us, reminiscent of Stonehenge and Victor Hugo's opening verse in Legends of The Ages. However, if we take a closer look at this wall of boulders, we can see the letters and words in it.
The first thing people recognize must be the word "rêve" (dream). I immediately thought of one of Baudelaire's poems, called "Beauty," which contains these words: "O mortals! I was as beautiful as a stone dream. ”
However, the term is not set in stone. There is also a " T " to the left of " rêve " , hence the " trêve " ( truce ) .
Inside the "rêve", there is also an "Eve". These stone letters are constantly changing and combining as we observe deeper.
The Art of Conversation IV, 1950
Appreciation of Magritte's representative works:
René Magritte
Magritte before the work Gorrida
"Gorrida"
Magritte got the name of the painting from his poet friend Louis Scottnell, who often helped him name his painting. In this example, Golconda refers to a city in India that was home to two different kingdoms from the 14th to the 17th century. As the center of the diamond industry, the richness of the region has become legendary, so much so that the name is now synonymous with "mine of wealth." In honor of his friend Scott Nair, Magritte used his face in the painting on the right hand side closest to the chimney.
Blank Signature, 1965
High Society, 1962
The False Mirror, 1928
Each work in this book is accompanied by a short text to show the reader what they may not have thought of when they first saw the painting: first, of course, it is an introduction to the background, so that the viewer understands the significance of the painting; then a number of details will be explained, and we always hope to link the details to the whole for a more complete and effective explanation. Moreover, for some great works, we have chosen only a part of them. For example, the Academy of Athens is only part of the first room fresco, Philosophy, which in turn is part of the entire Stanz Room.
Sometimes, an autobiography by a creator can make the reader more aware of his intentions, but this is really rare. Artists seem to want to disappear after their own work, because they are well aware that these works may be presented in a variety of different ways, and their creations are based on their education, the environment in which they live, or the flashes of inspiration. All we do in the book is to help the reader open up his mind, broaden his horizons, and finally interpret the work in his own way.
Inside page appreciation
(90° rotate phone to view)
Introduction of the Virgin before the Temple, Titian
"Equestrian Show" Lautrec
"Building the Temple of Jerusalem" by Jean Fouquet
"Notary" Basquiat
END
Books Shanghai | The smell of books is always accompanied
Source: On a good read
Editor: Duan Pengcheng