Iconic in impact yet elusive in meaning and technique, the haunting body of work that René Magritte (1898−1967) created during the years leading up to World War II is the subject of the new exhibition Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926–1938. The exhibition is the first to focus exclusively on those breakthrough years, presenting approximately 80 paintings, collages and objects, along with a selection of photographs, periodicals and early commercial work.

Organized jointly by the Menil Collection, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Modern Art, Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938 incorporates a wealth of material from the holdings of all three museums, as well as significant loans from other public and private collections in the U.S. and abroad.

The exhibition provides a rare opportunity to see original paintings, often complex and challenging in their execution, that have become known primarily through reproduction, while gathering the full range of materials needed to trace Magritte's development during years that were crucial both for him and for the course of modern art.

On view through June 1, 2014.