Without from Within
Djanogly Art Gallery, Nottingham, until 3 May
In 1935 Magritte painted a picture called ‘La Condition Humaine’ showing a mountain landscape seen from inside a cave. In the mouth of the cave an easel with a see-through canvas perfectly frames the view of a distant castle, while a fire burning inside reminds us of Plato’s famous allegory of human knowledge, comparing us to prisoners in a cave whose only perception of reality is based on shadows thrown by firelight on the walls. Painting, Magritte implies, is similarly partial (although presumably an advance on shadows for a cave-dweller).
Magritte’s picture hangs at the centre of Without from Within, a new exhibition at Nottingham University’s Djanogly Art Gallery tracing 100 years of views from indoors out. Starting with Spencer Gore’s ‘View from a Window’ (1909) and ending with George Shaw’s ‘Not Seeing Blossom’ (2010), it’s a saunter down a magical corridor whose 40 windows all open on to different prospects.
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