René Magritte: The Fifth Season

The pleasures of humor, of mystery, of layers of semblance and concealment still operate in these works. -- Regina Marler * The New York Review of Books *
Magritte still has the power to surprise. -- Sophie Haigney * The Economist *
A revelatory exhibition. -- Caroline Goldstein * Artnet *
Magritte’s power rests in his unpretentiousness. Instead of saying “I see things that you don’t,” he says, “You’ve probably seen this, too, but maybe you haven’t noticed that you’ve seen it. -- Peter Plagens * Wall Street Journal *
[The paintings] reawaken age-old questions about what the senses apprehend, what awareness and reflection contribute, and how we know. -- Kenneth Baker * Art Newspaper *
Instead of seeing an old, familiar friend, whose best-known motifs (pipes that aren’t pipes, bowler hats and so on) have leaked into every aspect of popular culture, we are confronted with a man who seems to be undergoing a breakdown. -- Sebastian Smee * Washington Post *
A once-in-a-lifetime event. -- Jonathan Curiel * SF Weekly *
... a grand success on its own terms: a well chosen, carefully researched, beautifully designed reconsideration of an artist we thought we knew. -- Charles Desmarais * SF Chronicle *
Magritte balanced irony and conviction, philosophy and fantasy to illuminate the gaps between what is seen and what is known. The selected works on display reveal Magritte as an artist acutely attuned to the paradoxes at work within reality and an enduring champion of the role of mystery in life and art. * Artinfo *