Art Collections Online
The Empty Mask
MAGRITTE, Rene (1898 - 1967)
© ADAGP, Paris and DACS, London 2002
Date: 1928
Media: oil on canvas
Size: 81.2 x 116.2 cm
Acquired: 1973; Purchase
Accession Number: NMW A 2051
In his essay 'Words and Images', published in 1929, the Belgian Surrealist Magritte observed that each image 'suggests that there are others behind it'. Viewed through a freestanding frame of irregular shape, these images are a sky, a lead curtain festooned with sleigh bells, a house fa?ade, a sheet of paper cut-outs, a forest and a fire. The title evokes the fear of the invisible which pervades the artist's work and reflects the Surrealists' fascination with the subconscious.
Comments - (6)
Thank you for your patience - we experience a technical problem which removed the names from comments, but it has now been resolved.
Sara
Digital Team
Dear Sir,
I’m glad that you have had uploaded my comment from 28 December; about “The Empty Mask”, it would be an honour for me that my name appear on top of it in your website.
Sincerely yours,
Juan Francisco Valenzuela Cruzat
I have recently found that this painting is on the front cover of the book “The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell” by Aldous Huxley, do you know if Huxley liked this painting for any particular reason or admired Magritte’s art works?