Jaws were on the floor earlier this year when the Art Gallery of New South Wales announced that it had secured Australia’s biggest and first-ever retrospective exhibition dedicated to the one and only René Magritte. Opening at the end of October, and sticking around until February 2025, consider Sydney art fiends' summer plans settled.
The exhibition titled ‘Magritte’ is part of Sydney’s International Art Series spanning 2024 and 2025. Getting in on the action are the state gallery’s Cao Fei: My City is Yours, and the MCA's Julie Mehretu exhibitions.
You could consider Magritte the master of symbols, and you’ve likely seen his plastered all over the place: clouds, bowler hats, pipes… well, *not* pipes, to be precise. The exhibition takes art lovers and history fanatics through 20 years worth of Magritte’s paintings, starting from the 1920s in the height of the surrealist movement.
More than 100 works make up the showing, and they’ve been flown in from all over the world including from the MoMA in New York, the Musée Magritte in Brussels, Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art, plus other museums and even some private collections too.
Magritte opens at the Art Gallery of NSW in the South Building’s Lower Level 2 on October 26 and will be there until February 9, 2025. The exhibition is a ticketed event, and prices start from, $30 for members and $35 for adults, or you can save some pennies by purchasing two for one tickets on Wednesday nights or this ultra pass to all three of the International Art Series exhibitions.
Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out Sydney newsletter for more news, travel inspo and activity ideas, straight to your inbox.