Behind the dark, flat figure on the left edge of the picture is a lamp swinging against a blue field in the centre of the picture. It could be the blue in the cut-out of a window that reaches down to the floor and is delimited by a railing. The colour suggests depth, perhaps a large, distant space, yet it appears impenetrable. The gaze is drawn across the perspectively aligned floor into the depth of the room, jumping back and forth between the swinging lamp and the red curtain, gliding over the blue without being able to anchor itself in it. The gaze is again drawn to the chiaroscuro of the aligned floor, and from there it wanders over the slightly rising columns back to the lamp. The figure serves as a placeholder for the gaze resting in the blue.

Description

Artwork page for ‘Passing the gaze’, Ruth Hillebrand Dane. ‘Passing the gaze’ is a painting in oil on canvas of the series ‘Lichtspielhaus’, its size measures 150 x 130 centimetres.