{"id":21945,"date":"2022-08-24T16:29:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T15:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=21945"},"modified":"2022-08-24T16:29:50","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T15:29:50","slug":"magritte-the-false-mirror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2022\/08\/24\/magritte-the-false-mirror\/","title":{"rendered":"Magritte: The False Mirror"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"magritte2.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Another short film about Ren\u00e9 Magritte’s paintings, The False Mirror<\/em><\/a> was made three years after the artist’s death in 1970, a time when his work had started to receive widespread international attention. Prior to the 1960s Magritte wasn’t exactly unknown but it wasn’t until the arrival of Pop Art that his paintings began to be reappraised. The production credits for The False Mirror<\/em> are surprising for such a short piece, the film being directed by art critic David Sylvester (whose book of interviews with Francis Bacon<\/a> is essential), and photographed by Bruce Beresford, later to become a well-regarded film director. Among the voices reading from the artist’s statements is ELT Mesens, another Belgian artist and friend of Magritte’s whose presence in the later incarnation of the British Surrealist Group gave that small society some authentic gravitas. (George Melly talks about Mesens and the British Surrealists in this film<\/a>.) The commentary runs over familiar ground: descriptions of the artist’s childhood encounter with a painter in a cemetery (also referred to in Magritte, ou la lecon de chose<\/em>), and the details of his mother’s suicide (dramatised in David Wheatley’s film<\/a>). I’d been wondering recently what Magritte might have made of the increasingly excessive prices being paid for his artworks. One of the comments here provides a possible answer when he says he’d be happy if people destroyed his paintings.<\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Magritte, ou la lecon de chose<\/a>
\n\u2022 Ren\u00e9 Magritte album covers<\/a>
\n\u2022 Monsieur Ren\u00e9 Magritte, a film by Adrian Maben<\/a>
\n\u2022 George Melly\u2019s Memoirs of a Self-Confessed Surrealist<\/a>
\n\u2022 The Secret Life of Edward James<\/a>
\n\u2022 Ren\u00e9 Magritte by David Wheatley<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another short film about Ren\u00e9 Magritte’s paintings, The False Mirror was made three years after the artist’s death in 1970, a time when his work had started to receive widespread international attention. Prior to the 1960s Magritte wasn’t exactly unknown but it wasn’t until the arrival of Pop Art that his paintings began to be … Continue reading “Magritte: The False Mirror”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"New blog post: Magritte: The False Mirror","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,7,44,18],"tags":[12406,4797,3257,12407,12405,1263,115],"class_list":["post-21945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-film","category-painting","category-surrealism","tag-bruce-beresford","tag-david-sylvester","tag-david-wheatley","tag-elt-mesens","tag-francis-bacon","tag-george-melly","tag-magritte"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-5HX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}