A New Key

The Simon Collection, housed in London and France, is the finest assemblage of modern Belgian art outside Belgium. Accompanying an exhibition held at Boston College’s McMullen Museum, A New Key presents fifty-three works never before displayed in North America, including important paintings by René Magritte, James Ensor, Frits van den Berge, Paul Delvaux, and others.
Full-color reproductions of the paintings are accompanied by seven essays that illuminate their significance and the distinctive contribution of Belgian art to the development of modernism. Addressing themes like the rise of Freudian psychology, the influence of carnival, and the trauma of two world wars, A New Key forges a new understanding of Belgium’s long-neglected role in the development of modern art.

Jeffery W. Howe is professor of fine arts at Boston College. He is the author of many books, including Houses of Worship and The Symbolist Art of Fernand Khnopff.