Tate | Young Tate: Exam Help: Nightscapes

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Nightscapes

Half-light, dark shadows, buildings and trees looming out of the darkness: places which might be very familiar in the day time can look very different at night.

This transformation as night-time falls is explored by many artists in their work. Some have focused on the echoing stillness of normally busy streets. Others have captured the calm beauty of landscapes softened by the half-light.

Eerie twilight landscapes become the backdrop for dreamlike figures or events in Paula Rego’s The Dance (1988) and Marc Chagall’s The Poet Reclining (1915). In Yankel Adler’s surreal No Man’s Land (1943) the moonlit landscape is inhabited by strange birds and creatures.

A very different mood is captured in other nightscapes. Graham Sutherland’s Black Landscape (1939-40) is sinister and haunting; while Cindy Sherman has used the cinematic language of suspense to create the nightmarish atmosphere of Untitled Film Still #48 (1979).