La Fondation de l'Hermitage, in Lausanne (CH),continues its exploration of important themes in Western iconography by inviting visitors to discover the many facets of the shadow in art. The exhibition Shadows, from the Renaissance to the present day, presents an entirely new selection of approximately 140 works, representing 500 years of art history and a very diverse range of art forms, from painting to installation, sculpture, print, drawing, cut outs, photography and video.
This major international exhibition features works on loan from prestigious museums and private collections, exploring the close links between shadow and art and the infinitely varied ways in which shadows have been represented since they first appeared in painting in the late Middle Ages.
Visitors will be able to participate in a journey through centuries and themes, juxtaposing masterpieces of Western art in an entirely new way to explore the ongoing interest in shadow shown by artists of all genres, from self-portraits (Rembrandt, Eugene Delacroix) to perspective explorations (Baccio Bandinelli, Pieter de Hooch), chiaroscuro (Luca Cambiaso, Jacob Jordaens, Joseph Wright of Derby) and the dramatic landscapes of the romantics (Caspar David Friedrich, Carl Gustav Carus, Wilhelm Bendz). The exhibition also highlights the shadows in the work of the Impressionists (Claude Monet) and the post-impressionists (Henri-Edmond Cross, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida), whose art reflects the arrival of artificial light and work on color theory in the XNUMXth century. In the early XNUMXth century, strong backlighting and powerful shadows played a key role in the search for an innovative formal language of contrast (Felix Vallotton, Hans Emmenegger). Highlights of the exhibition include a section bringing together the eerie and paradoxical shadows of the Symbolists (William Degouve de Nuncques, Léon Spilliaert), the Expressionists (Edvard Munch), the Surrealists (Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Max Ernst) and of the artists of the New Objectivity (Christian Schad, Niklaus Stoecklin). Meanwhile the uses of shadow in modern and contemporary art are reflected in iconic works by Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Christian Boltanski and Joseph Kosuth and artist videos (Vito Acconci, Jean Otth, Thomas Maisonnasse) that reinterpret the great founding myths that connect the shadow to art and knowledge from Plato to Pliny. The exhibition is enriched by a large photographic section, in particular the impressive images of Edward Steichen, Man Ray, Lee Friedlander and Wolfgang Tillmans, which reveal that even photography has its constant shadow.
