René Magritte: Beyond painting offers an extended engagement with a rethinking of Magritte#146;s art from a position informed by contemporary developments in art theory.It is the first monograph to extensively analyse Magritte#146;s art through employing a wide range of literary and philosophical/cultural theoretical frameworks. It offers close readings of specific images, paying attention to neglected aspects of Magritte#146;s work, discussing the significance of cabinets of curiosities and encyclopaedias, trompe l#146;oeil, framing and forgeries. It addresses a range of intertextual relations between Magritte#146;s work and that of other Surrealist artists and the art-historical tradition.This book explores how Magritte's art challenges conventional notions of originality, canonicity and coherence, revealing his work as being shaped by co-operations and co-options. It demonstrates that, far from being the surrealist artist familiar from book-covers and t-shirts, uncertainty, incoherence and negation lie at the core of Magritte#146;s oeuvre.