In his foreword, Kim Ooosterlinck, General Director of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, illuminates the significance of the artist’s contribution: Smith represents the first woman contemporary artist to be hosted by the Magritte Museum. Magritte’s influence on Smith is profound: she makes direct reference to him through her work, placing an apple, a burnt-out candle, and rocks in her compositions. While inspired by the iconic artist, Smith also extends her own shrewd, feminist-informed approach, challenging the gatekept, and often exclusionary,art historical conventions which Magritte himself helped seal into place. Approaching the female body, particularly the nude, with a female gaze, Smith questions the relationship between gender, surrealism, and the institution of painting itself.

In her expansive essay, writer and curator Virginie Devillez unpacks the salient motifs and modalities of Smith’s visual vocabulary, including Smith’s appropriations of (and responses to) her Surrealist forebearers. In this way, the reader is exposed to the full range of Smith’s representational strategies, drawing on Surrealism and Pop Art, in addition to Neoclassical allusions, Symbolist works, Art Nouveau magazines, and more. Lastly, Devillez generates a comparative study of both Magritte and Smith’s biographies, revealing surprising convergences between the artists’ lived experiences.