Sir Paul McCartney on Rene Magritte

...His greatest passion, though, was for Magritte.

He bought two Magrittes when Fraser took him to Paris to meet Alexander Iolas, Magritte's dealer. "After dinner we went downstairs in his place and it was just full of Magrittes. I was, like, in heaven - all these pictures and I was getting my pick. Being a bit sensible, I only bought a couple of oils. One was Gloria, which is an upturned carp - when you look sideways at it, it looks like a hooded figure with one eye, but when you look at it the other way it's a fish inside a castle keep, and outside is the sky and clouds, where we all want to be. The other one I bought was The Countess Of Monte Cristo, which is a painted bottle next to two ordinary wine bottles, very Magritte. I wish I'd bought more."

He acquired the third Magritte in his collection through Robert Fraser. "It was such a great conceptual thing. I was in the back garden in St.John's Wood. We had a camera crew there and we were filming [the singer] Mary Hopkin. Anyway, Robert arrived, and he didn't want to break our scene, so he left again; but he left this painting by the back door on the table - he'd propped this Magritte up against a vase. It was this big, beautifully painted green apple, and written across the apple are the words 'Au revoir'. Like a calling-card. Robert knew I'd want it, so he just left it; he knew we'd talk about the money later. That was just so cool. And that's where we got the insignia for Apple - the Beatles' record label - from."

[The Independent On Sunday article, October 2000]

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