Awakening the night
Subtitle: art from Romanticism to the present
By: edited by Agnes Husslein-Arco, Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer, and Harald Krejci
Contributors: Österreichische Galerie Belvedere
Publisher: Prestel; Brand: Prestel
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Munich; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 320
ISBN-13: 9783791352602; 9783791352596; 9783791364469; 9783791364452
Subjects: Night in art; Exhibitions; Romanticism in art
Description: This absorbing volume explores how artists have expressed their fascination with the night and its mysteries over two centuries. Delving deep into the subjects of philosophy, psychology, and astronomy, this beautifully illustrated and wide-ranging volume offers a chronological approach to understanding how artists of all kinds have dealt with the subject of nighttime. It opens with the early 19th century, focusing on the tension between romanticism and enlightenment, idealism and realism, beauty and science. It then goes on to explore the introduction of electricity, the subsequent illumination of urban spaces, and light pollution. Finally, it investigates contemporary images of places that come alive in the darkness: subways, mines, theaters, movie houses, and nightclubs. Filled with the work of renowned painters, photographers, sculptors, and filmmakers, the volume is enhanced by a series of insightful essays that help us understand how artists' depictions of nighttime have evolved in tandem with developments in technology, science, and philosophy.
Notes: Catalog published in conjunction with the exhibit held Oct. 24, 2012-Feb. 17, 2013 at the Belvedere, Vienna.

Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Foreword / Agnes Husslein-Arco; title: Austria as notturno / Werner Hofmann; title: The twilight night as allegorical figure / Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer; title: Night in the twentieth century: a surrealist legacy / Harald Krejci; title: On the physics and the technology and aesthetics of the night / Walter Seitter; title: A contribution to nyctology; title: The illuminations of night through speech / August Ruhs; title: Double darkness. The night in photography / Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer, Kerstin Jesse; title: From the magic of light to the destruction of the night / Thomas Posch; title: Plates; title: Two children of mother night: War and love / Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer; title: Myth, dream, and the queen of the night / Kerstin Jesse; title: Inner night, sleep, and blindness / Kerstin Jesse; title: Sublime landscapes of the night / Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer; title: Nocturnal activities / Kerstin Jesse; title: Natural and artificial underworlds / Kerstin Jesse; title: A somnambulation from symbolism to abstraction / Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer; title: Nights in space / Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer; title: The end of the night: Black irony and light pollution / Kerstin Jesse.