A shiny model train, a bird with a woman’s face, and a man apparently smoking his own nose are just a few of the delights of a new surrealist exhibition in central London.
The exhibition brings together a substantial collection of Magritte’s surrealist work with pieces by more than forty other artists, exploring how his peculiar way of seeing the world continues to spread. Familiar apples, bowler hats and cloud-filled skies mingle with objects that seem to have wandered in from somebody else’s dream.
The setting is part of the attraction. From an austere gallery exterior, you walk into rooms lined with richly coloured curtains, with some paintings recessed into chunky frames that look almost like little theatre windows.
Large, weird sculptures fill the centre, including a pile of bricks that looks like someone took the Tate’s infamous brick art and threw it up in the air in disgust. It’s the paintings that shine though, some of which are vaguely familiar to us from overuse in the media, and many we’ve probably never seen before.
In The Philosopher’s Lamp, a man’s nose curves down into the bowl of his pipe, while a candle coils beside him. Elsewhere, a formally dressed figure has an enormous, balloon-like head, and the trees with glowing eyes reminded me of Space:1999’s The Rules of Luton.
The exhibition’s title, This Is Still Not a Pipe: The Afterlife of Magritte, comes from Magritte’s continuing argument about pictures and things. The pipe shown here carries a revised version of his famous message: this is still not a pipe. But it is a picture of one.
Other connections are looser. Jeff Koons’s gleaming stainless-steel locomotive will appeal to many for its highly detailed construction – but I am not sure it’s surrealist, while Soshiro Matsubara’s woman-faced bird, lying on its back, is a much smaller and stranger presence.
Overall, there are enough famous paintings here to lure visitors, but the range is so wide and weird that the exhibition is most importantly… a lot of fun to visit.
Not many art galleries can say that.
The exhibition, This Is Still Not a Pipe: The Afterlife of Magritte is at Gagosian in Mayfair until 12th December 2026 and is free to visit.
It’s open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm, and the gallery is about half way between Bond Street and Green Park tube stations.
Gagosian Gallery
20 Grosvenor Hill
London
W1K 3QD
Note: If you have bags, you’ll be directed to leave them at the cloakroom by the entrance.
