This year marks the centenary of Andre Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto, which defined a revolutionary artistic movement characterised by unsettling juxtapositions and paradoxical statements — as in Magritte’s most famous work, a painting of a pipe titled “This is not a pipe.”
“Now it’s become usual to think of the subconscious, psychology, psychoanalysis - but they were the one who opened the doors,” Camu said.
Camu said Magritte, who died in 1967, has become the most “in-demand” of all the surrealists. Unlike the work of contemporaries such as Salvador Dali, there are few specific cultural or religious references to be found in his work.
“Magritte never explained anything,” Camu said — even the titles of his paintings were suggested by friends.
“There’s no sign of religion in Magritte ever, or particular history, or anything,” he said. “They are totally conceptual, clean, powerful, disturbing, wonderful, silent pictures. They are accessible to everybody.”
That claim is backed up by soaring prices for Magritte’s work in recent years, hitting a record £59.4m ($123m at the time) for L’empire des lumières (The Empire of Light) at a Sotheby’s auction in 2022.
The work up for sale in March comes from the collection of the late Gilbert Kaplan — founder of the publication Institutional Investor — and his wife, Lena Kaplan.
The painting will be on display before the sale at Christie’s in Los Angeles on Feb 3, 5 and 6, in New York on Feb 9-14, in Hong Kong on Feb 21-23 and in London on March 1-7.
