René Magritte

(possibly) New York, Hugo Gallery, René Magritte, 1948
Brussels, Galerie Isy Brachot, Magritte: cent cinquante œuvres; première vue mondiale de ses sculptures, 1968, no. 53
Hanover, Kestner Gesellschaft & Zurich, Kunsthaus, René Magritte, 1969, no. 80, illustrated in the catalogue
Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy & Sophienholm, Kongens Lyngby, The Belgian Contribution to Surrealism, 1971, no. 41, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Haus der Kunst & Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Der Surrealismus 1922-1942, 1972, no. 261 (Munich); no. 247 (Paris)
Paris, Galerie Isy Brachot, Magritte, 1984, no. 8
Paris, Galerie Isy Brachot, Le Surréalisme en Belgique I, 1986, no. 12

La Magie noire belongs to a group of works Magritte executed in the 1940s, depicting a female nude in an unidentified landscape. The woman is painted in a classical manner, abiding by the laws of beauty and proportion, resembling a marble sculpture as much as a live model. This traditional representation, however, is juxtaposed with the unexpected colouration of the figure, whose upper body gradually acquires the tone of the sky behind her. In nearly all paintings from this group, the woman has one hand resting on a block of stone. As Magritte himself proclaimed: ‘One idea is that stone is associated with an ‘attachment’ to the earth. It does not rise up of its own accord; you can rely on its remaining faithful to the earth’s attraction. Woman, too, if you like. From another point of view the hard existence of stone (…) and the mental and physical system of a human being are not unconnected’ (quoted in J. Meuris, op. cit., p. 76).

The nude is always depicted either with her eyes closed, or with her head turned away from the viewer or, as in the present work, with blank eyes resembling those of a sculpture, thus becoming the object of the spectator’s gaze and erotic desire. ‘Magritte said, in fact, that an undercurrent of eroticism was one of the reasons a painting might have for existing. It asserted itself most intensely and explicitly in these stately classical nudes with their cool coloring. For the very reason that it aims at maximum resemblance, their academicism is upset by the provocation of mystery emanating from that identification, once the painting and the arrangement of the painting interfere with its course. The prime example is Black Magic [the present work]’ (ibid., p. 76).