In his in Praise of Shadows, Tanizaki Junichiro inveighs against "the progressive Westerner" who "is determined always to better his lot. From candle to oil lamp, oil lamp to gaslight, gaslight to electric light—his quest for a brighter light never ceases, he spares no pains to eradicate even the minutest shadow", whereas Orientals revel in darkness and delight in its beauty.
"I See Nothing but the Sun" questions the selectivity of the eye of the artist in a Western civilisation where light, associated with beauty and truth, is set in opposition to shadow, the realm of fear and evil. Over the centuries, artists have made a vital contribution to the scientific understanding of light-related phenomena and have progressed in the mastery of their representation. However, knowledge thus accumulated is not an end in itself but an ever more extensive aesthetic arsenal at the service of a vision of the world. In this way, the artist is always in control, distributing shadows and light, from Tenebrism in the seventeenth century, in which the disciples of Caravaggio and Rembrandt made light an event in a world drowned in darkness, to Impressionism in which the effects of full sunlight instil colour into the darkest of shadows, from the immanent light of the golden grounds in the Middle Ages to the direct sources of artificial light diffused or projected since the 1960s.
From 25 September, 2010 to 2 January, 2011
The exhibition will open on 25 September from 2pm to 2am on the occasion of the Museum Night.
Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts / Lausanne
Palais de Rumine, C.P.
Place de la Riponne 6
CH - 1014 Lausanne
Tél: +41 21 316 34 45Fax +41 21 316 34 46
Florence Dizdari, press officer, florence.dizdari@vd.ch