The Empty Mask

The Empty Mask

Artist	René Magritte
Year	1928
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	81.2 cm × 116.2 cm (32.0 in × 45 ³⁄₄ in)
Location	National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff

The Empty Mask (1928) is a painting by Belgian surrealist René Magritte.

In his essay Words and Images, published in 1929, 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 façade, 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. The painting was purchased in 1973 and is usually on display in the National Museum of Wales.

Sources

National Museum Wales

René Magritte

Notable paintings	The Difficult Crossing (1926/1963) The Enchanted Pose (1927) The Menaced Assassin (1927) The Adulation of Space (1927-1928) The Empty Mask (1928) The Treachery of Images (1928–1929) On the Threshold of Liberty (1929/1937) The Voice of Space (1931) Elective Affinities (1933) The Human Condition (1933/1935) The Portrait (1935) Not to be Reproduced (1937) Time Transfixed (1938) The Palace of Memories (1939) The Listening Room (1952) Golconda (1953) The Empire of Lights (1954) The Mysteries of the Horizon (1955) The Telescope (1963) The Son of Man (1964) The Great War (1964)

Movement	Surrealism

Related articles	Magritte Museum Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts Western painting

Wikimedia	Magritte at Wiktionary Magritte at Wikibooks Magritte at Wikiquote Magritte at Wikisource Magritte at Commons Magritte at Wikinews

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