Indepth Arts News:
"The Shadow: Projected Shadow in Western Art"
2009-02-10 until 2009-05-17
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and Fundación Caja Madrid
Madrid, ,
ES Spain
Opening on 10 February 2009, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Fundación Caja Madrid are
presenting Shadows, the first major exhibition on the depiction of projected shadow in western art.
It brings together around 140 works by more than 100 artists, including paintings, photographs and
film projections. The exhibition aims to focus on and analyse the wide-ranging implications, issues
and solutions relating to the depiction of shadow in art from the Renaissance to the present day.
A classical tale recounted by Pliny the Elder (died 79AD) locates the origins of painting in Corinth
when a young woman, daughter of the potter Butades of Sicyon, drew the outline of her beloved
on a wall, helped by the light of a candle. The shadow as an element in artistic creation has been
closely associated with the history of western art, employed with a basically naturalistic intent in
order to emphasise the realism of the motif depicted, although each period has endowed it with
different characteristics. This exhibition, which is the first monographic on this subject, aims to draw
attention to the existence of cross-currents and to single out at times hidden threads that unite
different periods and artists despite their separation in time.
As on previous occasions, the exhibition is organised over two venues: the Museo Thyssen-
Bornemisza and Fundación Caja Madrid. The galleries in the Museum will present works from the
15th to the late 19th centuries, offering a complete overview through the work of some of the most
important artists to have depicted and used the element of shadow in their compositions. The first,
introductory room looks at the myth of the shadow in the origins of painting before moving on to
present various important examples of its study and use in the creation of perspective by
Renaissance artists as well as its symbolic connotations at that period.
IMAGE
Christian Schad, Bildnis des Dr. Haustein, 1928. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
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