“We know that under the revealed image there is another that is more faithful to reality, and beneath this still another, and again another under this last. And on up of that true image of that absolute, mysterious reality that nobody will ever see. Or perhaps to the point at which every image, every reality, decomposes.”

Michelangelo Antonioni

The following two paintings of book pages are from “That bowling alley on the Tiber” – a collection of 33 “sketches” for films Antonioni never made.

from “Toward the frontier”
“She’s in trouble,” she says, serious. She has a face I never tire of looking at. Everything in her is to be looked at. The one thought that might take her away from where she is, that is, from my gaze, is unbearable. That’s why I start when (after a half hour) she gets up. “Let’s be going,” she says-“

from “Two telegrams”
“The first time I saw her she was simply a woman stopped at a gas station. Gas stations have a large number of shiny surfaces. Whenever the woman found herself reflected in them, she was startled. She looked around as though she were frightened.”