Art Collections Online

The Empty Mask

MAGRITTE, Rene (1898 - 1967)

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)

Comments are currently unavailable. We apologise for the inconvenience.
Sara Huws Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales Staff
25 January 2016, 09:55

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

Juan Francisco Valenzuela Cruzat
21 January 2016, 02:26

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

Juan Francisco Valenzuela Cruzat
28 December 2015, 04:49

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?

Amgueddfa Cymru
4 November 2010, 09:22
Dear Adele, thank you for your comment. As the Artist is still in copyright we can not allow his works to be photographed and we are not able to make postcards. Copyright is 70 years from the date of the artist's death.
Adele Jennison
1 November 2010, 12:11
When will a postcard of the Magritte be available to buy in the shop, or when will visitors be allowed to photograph the more recent works in your fabulous collection?
EJ
12 November 2009, 14:36
This is top dog man awes
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