Intoxicated by the promise of a promotion, Charles Singular for once allows himself a small extravagance: he buys a bowler hat. But there’s a problem: this is no ordinary hat. This one once belonged to the surrealist painter René Magritte, and by donning it Charles has unwittingly stepped into the artist’s off-kilter world. What’s more, he can’t escape—at least, not until he has illuminated the secrets behind Magritte’s work. What follows is a hallucinatory journey through Magritte’s imaginative landscape, a place where facial features mutate, the crescent moon appears in unexpected places, and answers prove frustratingly elusive. In Magritte: This is not a Biography, Vincent Zabus and Thomas Campi have created a panoramic and revealing portrait of the great surrealist, employing a playfulness and wit reminiscent of Magritte himself.
Praise
“Zabus cultivates a sense of Magritte’s spirit in both the narrative and the artwork, and given how secretive Magritte was about his personal life, it’s an even more fitting take.”Booklist
—
"...sumptuous illustrations by Campi and a cunning narrative design..."Publishers Weekly
—
"...an admirably surreal experiment in artist biography."Artnet
—
“…this “non-biography” is a charmingly conceived and drawn look at [Magritte's] continued influence.”Hyperallergic
—
“Writer Vincent Zabus and illustrators Thomas Campi bring a new approach to the Art Masters series line… Packed with wit, humor, and gorgeous painted illustrations, Magritte: This is Not a Biography takes readers into the experience of Magritte’s brilliance."Comic Book Resources
—
“SelfMadeHero’s excellent Art Masters series continues with this look at one of the great kings of Surrealism, Rene Magritte, and appropriately enough this does not take the regular biographical format. Which is, I think, quite the correct approach – an artist with a body of work like Magritte is not best served by the traditional biographical means, this is more a voyage through his life and his work…”Forbidden Planet International Blog
—
“From creative team Belgian comic writer Vincent Zabus and Australian master of texture Thomas Campi this promises to be a visual, conceptual and narrative feast…”Broken Frontier
—
