Magritte Folon

This publication compares the works of two major Belgian artists – René Magritte and Jean-Michel Folon- their common grounds and their language in painting. Magritte depicts the mystery that emanates from the everyday life, while Folon opts for dreaminess and stylisation. Folon replaces Magritte’s pigeon with a refined bird, drawn in a single stroke; he prefers a rectangular parallelepiped to the surrealist’s well-described house. When he was 18, in 1953, Folon recalls discovering Le Domaine enchanté, the series of murals Magritte had just painted for the Knokke casino. It was a revelation. Although the two artists never met and 36 years separated them, Folon has acknowledged to be indebted to the master of Belgian surrealism -whom he considers “one of the fathers of his generation”- throughout his career. Magritte, by opening up the paths of mystery in painting, laid the foundations for Folon’s art, which would never cease to explore the paths of poetry.