| René Magritte's mustache, torso attached plunders a wet hat. "Negative Scenery" (1992) by Shozo Torii |
Magritte's playful and rich imagination caught the imagination of a number of Japanese poets, and their writings were my first introduction to the artist's work. A new exhibition at Shibuya's Bunkamura, showing some 90 paintings and gouache works by Magritte on loan from the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, gave me the chance to get closer to the canvases themselves.
To try to rationally explicate Magritte's artwork, though, would be contrary to his outlook on art. Instead, why not let the artist shine through his own writings and the artistic responses of others?