|
|
|
|
| 
|
|
|
Empire
of Light
1953-54
Oil on canvas
195.4 x 131.2 cm
76.2553 PG 102 |
|
|
|
In Empire of Light, numerous versions of which exist
(see, for example, those at the Museum of Modern Art,
New York, and the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts
de Belgique, Brussels), a dark, nocturnal street scene
is set against a pastel-blue, light-drenched sky spotted
with fluffy cumulus clouds. With no fantastic element
other than the single paradoxical combination of day
and night, René
Magritte upsets a fundamental organizing
premise of life. Sunlight, ordinarily the source of
clarity, here causes the confusion and unease traditionally
associated with darkness. The luminosity of the sky
becomes unsettling, making the empty darkness below
even more impenetrable than it would seem in a normal
context. The bizarre subject is treated in an impersonal,
precise style, typical of veristic Surrealist painting
and preferred by Magritte since the mid-1920s.
|
|
|
