Giddied by the prospect of promotion, Charles Singulier makes the whimsical decision to buy a bowler hat. It is a satisfying, if fanciful, purchase. But there's a problem: this particular hat once belonged to the Surrealist painter René Magritte, and by donning it Charles has unwittingly entered the artist's unbridled, off-kilter world. The choice is clear: uncover the secrets of Magritte's life and work or be doomed to wear the hat forever.
Charles embarks on an exploration of Magritte's imaginative landscape, examining the ideas and penetrating the mysteries of a paradoxical figure: a painter who didn't like to paint; an instinctive anarchist who lived a suburban, petty bourgeois existence; a lonely, melancholy soul never far from his friends and collaborators.
In Magritte: This is not a Biography, Vincent Zabus and Thomas Campi paint a panoramic and revealing portrait of the great Surrealist, employing a playfulness and wit reminiscent of Magritte himself.
