Magritte: This Is Not a Biography

Despite sumptuous illustrations by Campi and a cunning narrative design, this playful entry in the Art Masters series proves a mixed success. When a man named Charles buys and doffs a bowler hat once owned by surrealist Rene Magritte, he discovers he can’t take it off until he begins to understand its former owner. Wandering through a surreal (of course) and menacing landscape inspired by Magritte’s oeuvre, Charles soon becomes frustrated as the enigmatic painter both resists and defies explication. When he encounters a pretty art scholar, she escorts him through a tour of Magritte’s life and major work, and his attraction to her seems stronger than his interest in the art. This is not a typical biography, as noted in the subtitle, an allusion to Magritte’s famous painting The Treachery of Images (aka This Is Not a Pipe). Its script verges on the didactic as characters pop up to lecture Charles about Magritte’s life. Charles’s connection with Magritte—his ownership of the bowler hat notwithstanding—is tenuous at best. This makes the dramatic stakes of his quest feel slight as he approaches each page with placidity of a bored museumgoer, leaving readers similarly detached. [em](Nov.) [/em]