Louis Scutenaire

Belgian poet, anarchist, surrealist, lawyer and civil servant, also known as 'Scut.' He is chiefly remembered as a central figure in the Belgian Surrealist movement, along with René Magritte, Paul Nougé, Marcel Lecomte and his own wife Irène Hamoir.

Scutenaire's published works include a series of books entitled Mes Inscriptions, collections of gnomic and mischievous aphorisms, as well as one of the earliest and most entertaining monographs on Magritte. He was awarded in 1985 the Grand Prix spécial de l'Humour noir in recognition of his achievements as a writer with a lifelong distrust of authority and institution.

He died on 15 August 1987, twenty years to the hour after his friend Magritte, just after watching a television programme on the painter.