Nightwatching - have you ever done it?!

Come to think of it, it is really hard to find a location in Europe, where one might actually watch the night, as it was intended to be. The only time this has ever happened to me was in a very remote place, Dartmoor, in the middle of nowhere. Never before and never again I've seen this darkness in nature and never shone the stars as bright and were as close as at this instance.

Darkness, blackness is of course an issue that several artists have been intrigued  by , e g there was the story of Joseph Beuys, who allegedly - I haven't actually been there - found the darkest black sooty stovepipe, he once put into a wall.

To me personal there can be a lot happening in dark spaces, like in Barnett Newman's Prometheus Bound, there is a whole drama hidden in it, and something I heard btw also, when I first encountered it there was a flourish, and every painting else got obsolete, I was absorbed. The second time I visited it during a retrospective in Düsseldorf, I spent a considerable time in front of it. Apparently too much for the museum attendant, who got behind me - like Newman suggests I always get as close as possible. The exhibition had been on for some time, so the painting should not have been that new to the attendant, yet suddenly I heard a yell behind me: "Kommt schnell, da ist was, ich habe was gesehen/ Come quickly, there is something I've seen something."  I couldn't help but turn, smile at her and be a little bit jealous at this marvellous moment of discovery. She was absolutely right and absolutely right to yell in the museum. Hallelujah!