Friends

Paul Nougé
1895-1967
poet and author

Founding member of the Belgian Communist Party in 1921, Paul Nougé was part of the small group of intellectuals and artists who, five years later, would constitute the surrealist circle in Brussels. He became its undeniable leader. 'He seemed like rigour personified', according to E. L. T. Mesens. Nougé publishes, along with Marcel Lecomte and Camille Goemans, tracts in Correspondance, the surrealist group’s first outward manifestation in Belgium. Magritte meets him in 1925. Paul Nougé played a considerable role in making the painter known. He shares Magritte’s interest in photography and the possibilities of film.  In 1929 and 1930, together  with Magritte and Lecomte, he publishes a series of photographs under the title La Subversion des images, as well as two short-features in 1932. In 1943, Nougé brings out René Magritte ou les Images défendues, a work written ten years previous, with extracts having appeared in Le Surréalisme au service de la Révolution (May 1933). After WWII, relations with the painter became increasingly problematic, ending with a rupture in 1952.