The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (the “MRBAB”) are now showing, for the first time since 1971, the painting “The Treachery of Images” by René Magritte. This is better known by the title “This Is Not a Pipe”, and is part of the exhibition “Magritte, Broodthaers and Contemporary Art.” This is taking place in the “MRBAB” from today through to January 18th, 2018. The retrospective is the culmination of the Magritte Year. The latter has been organised by these museums on the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the surrealist painter.
The exhibition, devised as a reverse retrospective on the works of Magritte, starts with the Belgian artist’s last work and ends with the paintings from his early years. Moreover, the exhibition places great emphasis upon the influence that Magritte may have had on the art world during his lifetime, and that which he continues to exert even fifty years after his death.
The retrospective presents more than 150 works, paintings, pictures, photographs and films by Magritte, and their reinterpretation by contemporary artists, such as Marcel Broodthaers and Andy Warhol, who died in 1976 and 1987 respectively. Moreover of all such artists Broodthaers, without doubt, embodies the best artistic relationship with Magritte. Indeed Magritte reflects upon both the status of the given object and that of the language connected with it.
Those with disabilities and reduced mobility have not been neglected by the exhibition designers. Four tactile surfaces, integrating Braille, have been set out throughout the exhibition rooms. An introduction to the exhibition is also available in sign language, at the beginning of the exhibition route, for the hearing-impaired and the deaf.
Lastly, do note that the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the Magritte Museum will be open seven days a week during the period of the exhibition.
The Brussels Times
