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Night Mirror (1992) is part of the ongoing series of “hemisphere” paintings by Albrecht. Also known as “Lunettes”, these shaped canvases derive inspiration from the arches of Romaneque and Renaissance interiors: the architecture of church and chapel, the barrel vault, and the niche. 

Two quadrants bolted together to form a semi-circular shaped canvas. The contrasting purple and black segments make the piece into a diptych, separated by a flash of grass green where the edges meet in the centre. The separate halves invoke the notion of binary or debate; equal but separate, they reference the division between the heavenly and earthly realm as represented in Renaissance paintings, or day and night perhaps as referenced in the title. In 1979, Albrecht travelled around the United States and Europe, and for a period afterwards she referenced the Italian Renaissance artists in the titles of her hemisphere paintings (After Piero, Giotto’s Blue, Lunette (for Fra Angelico), After Duccio). These direct references acknowledge her past inspiration, while the physicality of the arc-like brushstrokes evoke the abstract expressionists of the 1960s. . Unlike some other hemisphere works Night Mirror bears visible and expressive gestures, in curving lines that reinforce the shape of the canvas. Lunettes usually reference space in a classical building; however, the lunette form in these works are disentangled from practical function, chosen instead by the artist to signify the act of painting. Albrecht explains “‘Hemisphere’ implies space. A shape to contain the feeling.”