Magritte Museum

Rene Magritte was the first painter I came cross as a child. When I was nine years old I had to read a book for school which was illustrated with his painting and completed changed my world. Since then my admiration and interest to his world only grew and today he is not only my favourite artist but also responsible for my career choice. Rene Magritte was born in 1898 in Lessines, Belgium. Throughout the years he developed his painting styles in impressionism, cubism, futurism until finding his space in surrealism. His work was considered to have influenced the pop, minimalist and conceptual art during the 60s when his pieces became important on the art scene.

Nevertheless, more than 40 years after his death, a Magritte Museum was opened in Brussels, Belgium. The museum houses more than 170 works and is considered to be the greatest Magritte collection in the world. The museum is situated at the famous Altenloh Hotel on Place Royale. The museum launch gathered attention from the international media when Altenloh Hotel was totally covered by a canvas imitation one of Magritte’s famous pieces.The government of Belgium took a while to explorer it most famous painter and son of the surrealism movement, nevertheless when it did, did in style.

The museum creation was possible due a partnership between the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the Magritte Foundation, the Belgian Regie

des Batiments, the Belgian Federal Science Policy Administration and the GDF SUEZ Group. The Magritte Museum was designed to be multi-disciplinary, educational and interactive. It involved state-of-the-art technologies which are offered to the audience to explore Magritte’s work and life in accordance to environment-friendly practices. Like the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Magritte Museum intent to become a “leading international skill center for research, transmission and presentation of the life, thought and work of René Magritte.”