Blain|Di Donna's Inaugural Exhibition Displayed the Works of René Magritte

Written by Stella Rimington Monday, 07 May 2012 23:51

New York City.- Blain|Di Donna is delighted to present as its inaugural exhibition, "Dangerous Liaisons", a survey of paintings, works on paper and objects by the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte. The exhibtion was viewed at the new gallery in the Carlyle Hotel. Bringing together over twenty five major oils, gouaches and drawings, this is the first Magritte show of this scale to be presented in New York in almost fifteen years, and comes at a time of renewed interest in Surrealism and its key exponents. The exhibition’s title is derived from Magritte’s seminal early work, "Les Liaisons dangereuses" (1935), an enigmatic painting thought to have been inspired by the eighteenth century French novel of the same name, in which two rival lovers deploy sex as a weapon to humiliate others. As with many of the works in the artist’s oeuvre, it delights and disturbs in equal measure; uncanny, poetic, playful and erotic, it underlines his unsettling ability to pull at the threads of philosophical and psychological certainties, and in doing so eloquently sets the tone of the exhibition as a whole.

Also included is "La Trahison des images" (1952), Magritte’s best known painting and one of the great propositions of Modern art; a smoking pipe rests on a wooden background under which ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’ is inscribed on a plaque, posing the question: how can we really believe what we see and what role does perception play in our comprehension of reality? Equally recognizable is "Le Goût de l’invisible" (1964), in which an apple engulfs the face of a bowler-hatted man, while "L’Empire des lumières" (1954) presents one of the artist’s most celebrated and popular subjects, and is characteristically an iconic image and a visual paradox. This large-scale enigmatic painting explores phenomena including the coexistence of day and night, the nocturnal landscape and the skyscape, and the interplay of lightness and darkness, evoking the mysterious quality embedded in Magritte’s expressive art.

A selection of Magritte’s best work in gouache accompanies these masterpieces, and the drawings demonstrate his brilliance as a draughtsman, offering a rare insight into this aspect of his artistic practice. Above all, Magritte was celebrated for his wit, humor and playfulness, characteristics which are encapsulated perfectly by the inclusion of "Femme-bouteille" (1941), where the form of a naked woman mirrors the curves of the wine bottle upon which it lies, the bacchanal connotations flowing within the viewer’s mind. Iconic, immediately affecting and universally recognizable, Magritte’s pictorial conundrums, trademark double-takes, and visual-verbal paradoxes are as pervasive as ever, as indicated by the appropriation of his imagery by subsequent artists, film directors, advertising agencies, and musicians – key examples include the logos of The Beatles and CBS.

The floor-to-ceiling windows in the new Blain Di Donna gallery in the Carlyle Hotel look out on the brown marble building that houses Larry Gagosian’s uptown digs and serve as something of a contrast to that gallery’s submarinelike enclosure. The Blain Di Donna space is the former home of Ursus Books, the art-book store favored by dealers—it was here that Larry Salander racked up a tab of over $300,000 before he went bankrupt and was sent to prison. The gallery’s opening marks the beginning of a new career for Emmanuel Di Donna, the 17-year veteran of Sotheby’s and the presence of an impressive new secondary-market gallery in the city. With the support of his partner, the powerful English dealer, Harry Blain, Blain Di Donna is poised to make waves when it comes to the business of trading contemporary, Impressionist and Modern works in this city. Visit the gallery's website at ... http://www.blaindidonna.com

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