Installation view of the ‘Magritte’ exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, 26 October 2024 – 9 February 2025, artworks © Copyright Agency, Sydney 2024, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Mim Stirling

Despite being behind The Treachery of Images, most who engage with Magritte’s works fall victim to the works’ cause of lament. Magritte’s legacy as one of the most eminent surrealist painters has been cemented in the mass proliferation of his works online and in pop culture references from the Beatles to Beyoncé. For the first time in Australia, the AGNSW will be unveiling Magritte, the largest ever retrospective of the eponymous artist ever seen in the country. From the 26th of October, Magritte will be open to the public to witness over 100 of the late artist’s works.

Developed by the Art Gallery in collaboration with the Magritte Foundation and the Menil Collection, which houses the largest Magritte collection outside Europe, Magritte showcases major works on loan from collections across Australia, Belgium, Japan, and the United States, most of which have never before been seen in Australia. As part of the Sydney International Art Series 2024–25, Magritte reflects a wider ambition to usher Sydney into the inner stage of the art world, away from the periphery, and establish its growing status as a global cultural hub.

The exhibition, divided into six sections chronicling different periods of Magritte’s career, begins with Les grands voyages, a display of Magritte’s early work. Here, the Naala Nura, the gallery’s south building, is transformed into the smoky inner sanctum of Magritte’s beginnings. It is a glimpse into Nicholas Chambers’ curatorial cunning when, upon entering, one comes face-to-face with Magritte’s inchoate 1923 self-portrait. This painting sets the tone for the exhibition’s opening phase, exploring the early development of Magritte's art in the 1920s — from his avant-garde experiments to the solo exhibition that established him as Belgium's leading surrealist painter. Rarely seen early works are displayed alongside publishing ventures and commercial projects that sustained him financially in the early stages of his career.

L'alphabet des révélations, the second limb of the exhibition exploring Magritte’s investigation of language, perception, and reality, boasts The Lovers amongst its impressive assemblage. As one of Magritte’s most instantly recognisable works, it stands as one of the exhibits greatest attractions. Inspired by Magritte’s interest in pulp crime novels since his youth, the image of victims wrapped in cloth are central to the surrealist themes of concealment and disguise, ideas that quickly underlined his motif of the bowler-hatted man and his use of silhouettes in later works.

The exhibition continues to unfurl in a dream-like fashion where the gallery itself turns into a creature of Magritte. L’ellipse, with its fleshy pink walls and Bauhaus-style benches, sees Magritte’s artworks during the outbreak of WWII bleeding beyond the frame and into the environment. The design of the exhibition, from the moody low-lights and otherwise shadowy atmosphere, excel in making the visitor feel entrenched in the uncanny themes of Magritte’s works.

'It can happen,' Magritte once told his friend Louis Scutenaire, 'that a portrait tries to resemble its model. However, one can hope that this model will try to resemble its portrait.' Chambers had commented on Magritte's lifelong skepticism of the psyche and its representation in art, but Le Paysage de Baucis, the final act of the exhibition, is an undeniable look inwards into Magritte's persona. Both eerie and peaceful, the final room is shrouded in a velvety green amongst which his final paintings whisper rumours of Magritte's transformation. At this point, one cannot help but think back to the self-portrait that greeted them, now at odds with the viscerality of The happy donor and Man and the forest.

Chambers’ curation evokes a sense of déjà vu, inviting visitors to reflect on the uncanny familiarity of Magritte’s images — icons of visual culture typically appreciated through screens yet seldom encountered in their original form. Magritte offers a rare chance to stand before the works that have indelibly shaped contemporary visual culture. This exhibition serves not only as a reintroduction to Magritte as an artist but as a rediscovery of the influences that profoundly transformed the modern imagination.

Magritte at the Art Gallery of New South Wales opened on October 26, 2024, and will be on display on Lower Level 2 of Naara Nula until February 9, 2025, exclusively at the AGNSW. Tickets can be purchased here

Magritte - Art Gallery of New South Wales