Looking forward to this :D

Many thanks to hide for this insightful interview in the Guardian.

 

Will Young: Why I love Magritte

'Magritte was smart on the outside, rebellious on the inside – and that's kind of like me'

 

When I was 15, I walked into a bookshop in Oxford with my mum and there it was sitting in a basket – an old catalogue for a Magritte exhibition. On the front cover was an outline of a dove in a dark, cloudy sky. This was his painting The Great Family, and it just spoke to me. I loved it so much that I stuck it up on my wall at boarding school, when all the other boys seemed to have FHM cover girls.

 

I prefer this smartly dressed Belgian's quiet surrealism to Dalí's. It's very everyday, very normative, which suits this ordinary-looking man who lived and worked in a quiet suburb of Brussels. I already had a passion for bowler hats: I'd been collecting them since I was 12. They represented stiffness, structure, monotony – and I liked the idea of subverting that, which is exactly what Magritte did when he painted faceless men wearing them. He was taking on the establishment.

 

Magritte's works feature subjects that are not necessarily interesting: an apple, a pipe, a window, a bowler hat, a fireplace. But the minute he adds a title, everything changes. One of his most famous works is a drawing of a pipe. Underneath it are the words: "This is not a pipe." Now, that gets you thinking. Actually, it isn't a pipe – it's his drawing of a pipe. But he's lifted the drawing from an encyclopaedia. So he's saying: "This isn't even my drawing of a pipe – it's a drawing of a drawing of a pipe." Then he's saying: "What is a pipe?" It could be a deliverer of cancer, or five minutes of peace; a way of keeping out of an argument, or of hiding your feelings. There are so many other things a pipe is.

 

He ran an advertising agency, Studio Dongo, with his brother, and brought the idea of language and titles into painting, saying he wanted ordinary objects to "utter a kind of scream". I love this approach. It's subtle yet weirdly obvious and echoes what I love in life – looking at things and going: "OK, I didn't think about that."

 

My passion for Magritte has manifested itself subconsciously in a lot of my work. In my videos, I often play characters who seem humorous at first, yet there's something else behind all that. In the video for Friday's Child, I'm swimming in a pool, topless, with ripped abs. But I'm not like Usher, dancing around with babes in a car. I'm learning how to swim. With four-year-olds. And that's subversive.

 

Magritte was smart on the outside, rebellious on the inside, and that is kind of me. I'm a very well-to-do guy, very well meaning. I don't shake anything up. I'm not rock'n'roll. But I like to think that, if you look at the levels in my work, there's a lot to see.

 

There is some debate over whether Magritte was a chauvinist or pro-women. Having just made a programme about him for ITV, I now think he had a love of women. He's more about female empowerment, particularly when you see him in paintings as a tiny figure, alongside enormous women. That's very telling and chimes with what I think: all men are babies. We are, aren't we? Women are hard as nails. They run the show.

 

I say in the film that I wanted to find out "what lies underneath the hat". But to be honest, I didn't like finding out about the man. It brings a sense of disillusionment. At one stage, he said: "The thing about my paintings is they don't really mean anything." I don't believe that. I don't want to hear that.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/20...itte?CMP=twt_gu

Edited April 30, 201411 yr by truly talented

Yes it's a good article isn't it TT?!

 

I'd love to know how the programme came about. The depth of Wills passion for the subjects he's interested in is always apparenl. He clearly has longstanding interests as well as an ability to assimilate new ones too. Quite fascinating.

Critics Choice in the Telegraph. :cheer:

 

SUNDAY 4 MAY

CRITIC’S CHOICE: Perspectives – The Man in the Hat: Rene Magritte with Will Young

ITV, 10.00pm

One of the pleasures of the Perspectives strand is its surprise pairings of presenter and subject: David Walliams on Roald Dahl, Lenny Henry on Shakespeare or Michael Portillo on Picasso. Tonight we get a Pop Idol winner on the Belgian surrealist. Since he stumbled across a book about Rene Magritte at the age of 15, Will Young has harboured a passion for his art – so much so that he opened his last tour by donning Magritte’s bowler hat and raincoat. This film finds the singer-turned-actor travelling around Belgium to discover more about a man whose conventional exterior concealed the subversive wit of a rebel.

Young begins at Magritte’s birthplace in Hainaut and ends at his modest grave in Brussels, along the way peering through the window that famously appears in his work. He hears about a childhood marked by tragedy and how a chance meeting in botanical gardens after the First World War led to Magritte’s reunion with his childhood sweetheart. Young traces Magritte’s career, from his early struggles to a transformative trip to Paris. By the Fifties, this artist found international fame, evidenced when our host watches one of his works fetch £5.8m at a London auction. Graphic designer Aubrey Powell explains how Magritte’s vision has inspired dozens of album covers, including Powell’s own sleeves for Pink Floyd. It’s an enlightening journey and the articulate Young makes for an engaging guide. MH

 

Here's the link.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandra...highlights.html

 

good Morning Britain after 7.40! :D

 

 

At last some promo :dance:

Got up later and my hubby had recorded both parts for me! :cheer:

 

True eccentric Will - DIY - repaired specs! :lol:

 

Nice bit of publicity. And a tag line saying "currently writing new material for new music - 2015". :yahoo:

 

Thanks finally. Saw your post and hopped over to Devoted to find I'd missed it. A post on there reminded me of +1. :cheer:

 

It struck me how well he looks. The break may not suit us but it sure seems to be suiting him. I agree no one could argue he isn't eccentric but it just makes him all the more endearing. :wub:

 

The tag line re the new music has made my day. :cheer:

 

Missed this :( Hope to see it on catch-up.

 

Piccies here outside ITV studios, with his hairdresser Paul: http://www.contactmusic.com/pictures/will_young/1-1

 

Think he got dressed in the dark :P

 

Good to hear about the music. :dance:

Edited May 2, 201411 yr by munchkin

Thanks for the links to the pics munchkin. :)

Short youtube clip from this morning.

 

Edited May 2, 201411 yr by truly talented

Thanks TT, he was on very good form! :D

Thanks TT, he was on very good form! :D

 

He certainly was :D

 

I didn't spot the new music bit, when Will's on screen he's all I see :heart:

Not long too wait. :cheer:

 

Brilliant to see Will's episode featuring as quite a few picks of the dayl

Thanks to Carol. Full interview from Good Morning Britain.

 

Thanks TT. I am so looking forward to seeing the programme now. :cheer:

To get us in the mood for later. :cheer:

 

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb152/gillwill_photos/perspectivesjpg_2896769b-460x287.jpg

 

http://primetime.unrealitytv.co.uk/perspec...-rene-magritte/

 

Thanks to Diz for the pic and link.

 

Also a review in a local Ipswich paper.Thanks to Ali.

 

 

http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb152/gillwill_photos/Scan0003.jpg

Thanks TT for bringing it over :cheer:

Thanks TT! Counting down now..

Thought Will did a great job. I love his childlike enthusiasm. :) The documentary was interesting but that kind of art doesn't appeal to me, though I like a few of Magritte's less bizarre pics.

Edited May 5, 201411 yr by truly talented

I really enjoyed the programme and agree Wills enthusiasm came across so well. He does have such a lovely voice ideal for presenting. I will definitely watch a second time to see what I missed but he did hold my attention all the way through, which for an arts programme is a bit of a first for me!