Magritte And Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images

Ghent, Belgium: Los Angeles County Museum of Art / Ludion, 2006. Softbound. VG, Like New. Color illustrated wraps. 256 pp., About 250 color and 50 b&w illus. Issued in conjunction with 2006-2007 exhibitions held in California and Belgium, focusing on the work of Rene Magritte (1898-1967). His seminal painting "The Treachery of Images (This Is Not a Pipe)" is a Surrealist and Modernist masterpiece that has become an instantly recognizable pop culture icon. It's also an excellent image with which to begin a serious discussion about the meaning(s) of representation. While many books and exhibitions have undertaken to survey the work of Magritte, and while many have acknowledged his profound impact upon other artists of his generation, none has yet studied the precise connections between Magritte's work and today's top contemporary artists. In The Treachery of Images, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art brings together more than 50 of the most important Magrittes with an equal number of very significant works by contemporary artists, both cool and edgy, including Jasper Johns, Ed Ruscha, Vija Celmins, Joseph Kosuth, Sherrie Levine, Richard Artschwager, Jeff Koons, Martin Kippenberger, Jim Shaw, Raymond Pettibon, Robert Gober and Marcel Broodthaers. Among the distinguished contributors are the internationally renowned art writer Thierry de Duve, co-curator Michel Draguet (director of the Musees Royaux de Bruxelles), critic Pepe Karmel and art historian Dickran Tashjian. Chapters and interviews are devoted to Ruscha, Celmins, Gober and Artschwager, among others.