An unusual artist with a legendary body of work. Undoubtedly, Darren Almond, born in 1971, is one of the outstanding contemporary English artists. This began with his participation in the legendary exhibition Sensation in 1997, marking the start of the Young British Artists, led to the Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2003, and culminated in his nomination for the Turner Prize in 2005. Those fortunate enough to have seen the sensitive and focused exhibition at Villa Merkel in Esslingen in the summer of 2011 can consider themselves lucky. The large-format night pieces (2004–2010) lend their title to the publication, just as they did to the exhibition Nocturne, and depict landscapes photographed under a full moon with long exposure, evoking the Romantic landscapes in their European variants and classical Japanese and Chinese landscape painting in their Asian motifs. The absence of shadows.