Magritte on Magritte

Rene Magritte's letters, notes the Guardian, show a modern eye for marketing. He was the Damien Hirst of his time.

From the article...

Unpublished letters that cast fresh light on one of the most accomplished, least eccentric and – it turns out – most entrepreneurial of all the surrealist artists, René Magritte, are to be sold at auction.

The precisely written letters, complete with more than 40 drawings are, according to the auction house Sotheby's, excessively rare and reveal an artist who exercised huge control over every aspect of his work. He was, it seems, as concerned by the marketing of his art as he was by the paintings themselves.

The letters also include famous Magritte motifs, some of which can be seen for the first time in the documents for sale, including the faceless character who appeared in his painting Le Liberateur, and the chair upon a chair in La Légendes.

Magritte's letters are not being sold until June, but have been rushed from New York to London to go on display with five works by the artist that are being sold on Tuesday in a sale of post-impressionist and modern art.