Life In Still Life
Crafton Hills College, Online
Tiffany Hahn, Curator
Showing: Still Life Art
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Life In Still Life
Artists Being Shown:
- Chardin, Jean Baptiste Siméon
- Gris, Juan
- Kalf, Willem
- Monet, Claude
- Morandi, Giorgio
- Picasso, Pablo
- Steenwyck, Harmen
- Talbot, William Henry Fox
- Van Gogh, Vincent
- Weston, Edward
I hope you will enjoy this exhibit and stop to really see what each piece is saying, each one has a different aspect of beauty that brings life to objects which otherwise would have none.
Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life
Harmen
Steenwyck
Still
Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life
Oil on Oak, Painting
39.2 x 50.7 cm
1640
Harmen
Steenwyck (1612 - 1656) was born in Delft, where he mainly worked. He and his
brother Pieter were taught by their uncle, David Bailly, in Leiden. Bailly is
often credited with the invention of the type of painting called a vanitas,
which emphasizes the transience of life and the vanity of worldly wealth. The
vanitas was a specialty in Leiden, and Steenwyck became its leading exponent.
This
type of painting is called a 'Vanitas', after the biblical quotation from the
Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes (1:2): “Vanitas vanitatum... et omnia
vanitas'”, translated “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” The objects in this
painting have been chosen carefully to communicate the 'Vanitas' message which
is summarized in the Gospel of Matthew 6:18-21: “Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and
steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do
not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also." Each object in the picture
has a different symbolic meaning that contributes to the overall message. The
books symbolize human knowledge, the musical instruments (a recorder, part of a
shawm, a lute) the pleasures of the senses. The Japanese sword and the shell,
both collectors' rarities, symbolize wealth; shells are also traditionally
used in art as symbols of birth and fertility. The chronometer and expiring
lamp allude to the transience and frailty of human life. All are dominated by
the skull, the symbol of death.
This
piece is slightly different, it was chosen for the symbolism rather than the
immense beauty. While it has the key elements of making one inspect the
elements which are askew on the table, it makes one focus on the skull in the
center. The items represent everyday life, which is indeed showing beauty, but
the skull and the lamp represent the inevitable end to come in life. This piece
almost makes the simple items more glorified in beauty, because they are part
of life and yet it will end. It makes the viewer want to treasure the beauty even
more.
Natura Morta (Still Life)
Giorgio
Morandi
Natura
Morta (Still Life)
Oil on Canvas, Painting
30.50 x 30.60 cm
1956
"It
takes me weeks to make up my mind which group of bottles will go well with a
particular colored tablecloth......Then it takes me weeks of thinking about the
bottles themselves, and yet often I still go wrong with the spaces. Perhaps I
work too fast?" –Giorgio Morandi
Giorgio Morandi
(1890-1964) was one of those painters who, at first glance, seem to defy categorization.
He was nicknamed ‘il monaco’ (the monk) due to his reclusive lifestyle. Morandi
spent most of his life in his native town of Bologna, both living and painting
in his flat, and seldom venturing far afield. This gave rise to his initial
reputation as a provincial artist, but the obvious quality of his paintings
gradually forced a reappraisal of his work and established him as one of the
best modern Italian painters and the greatest master of Natura Morta (still
life) in the 20th century.
Morandi
deliberately limited his choice of still life objects to the unremarkable
bottles, boxes, jars, jugs and vases that were commonly found in his everyday
domestic environment. He would then 'depersonalize' these objects by removing
their labels and painting them with a flat matt color to eliminate any
lettering or reflections. In this condition they provided him with an anonymous
cast of ready-made forms that he could arrange and rearrange to explore their
abstract qualities and relationships. Morandi's compositions and choice of
still life’s objects allude to his Italian heritage. When assembled together in
a still life group, his dusty bottles and boxes take on a monumental quality
that evokes the architecture of medieval Italy - a style with which he seems at
ease. Morandi
always looked at his still life objects as if he was seeing them for the first
time. He slowly contemplated each object, profoundly searching for its visual
dynamic within the still life group. When satisfied with an arrangement, he
would draw around the bases of the objects to finalize their positions. It is this
intensity of contemplation and observation that gives a freshness and
individuality to Morandi's painting.
This piece is quite
different from the others in terms of content, or lack thereof. This piece was
actually chosen for that reason, it makes the viewer pause and question the
painter’s purpose. In this piece, the color and blended stokes make the viewer
pause and slow down almost unintentionally. That is what is so unique and
beautiful about the piece, it has taken things from everyday life and made them
less fast-paced. The painting has a tranquil sense to it, and therefore the
piece was chosen simply because it is a still life that has a huge impact on
the viewer. There is simplicity and peace in this one painting, unlike any
other around it and thus is uniquely beautiful for that.
Glass of Water and Coffee Pot
Jean
Baptiste Siméon Chardin
Glass
of Water and Coffee Pot
Oil on Canvas, Painting
32 cm x 41.3 cm
1760
Jean-Baptiste-Simeon
Chardin (1699-1779) was born in Paris, the son of a cabinetmaker, and rarely
left the city. He lived on the Left Bank near Saint-Sulpice until 1757, when
Louis XV granted him a studio and living quarters in the Louvre. Chardin's work
had little in common with the Rococo painting that dominated French art in the
18th century. To
Chardin this theatrical approach reduced art to some kind of intellectual
conversation piece. The items he portrayed from his own home were selected for
their shapes, textures and colors, rather than for any symbolic meaning they
may have had. They were simply painted to convey the visual pleasure he
experienced in looking at them. What Chardin strove for was an overall
effect: a unity of tone, color and form. Chardin would prime his canvases with
a brownish pigment, sometimes tinted with red or green. This would give him a
neutral background to paint on. On this he would brush in the darkest tones,
then the mid-tones, and finally the highlights. When he arrived at the correct
tonal balance, he would add color, being careful to maintain the overall
harmony. He would finally complete the work by going over it again with the colors
he had already used in order to create the reflections and highlights that tune
and unify the composition.
One critic wrote, “To look at pictures by other artists it seems that I need to borrow a
different pair of eyes. To look at those of Chardin, I only have to keep the
eyes that nature gave me and make good use of them.”
In ‘Glass of
Water and Coffee Pot’ the same white that is used for the cloves of garlic is
echoed in the reflections from the glass on one side and in the burnished
highlights of the copper coffee pot on the other. The range of browns across
the picture are united by a subtle hint of the green of the garlic leaves. Chardin's
'Glass of Water and Coffee Pot' contains many of the key elements of his
deceptively simple still lifes. The glass and coffee pot are both truncated
cones, but the shape of one is an inversion of the other. The balance of these
two opposite forms creates a dialogue between their shapes. This balance of
opposites continues through other elements: the glass is light, transparent,
cold, smooth and reflective, while the coffee pot is dark, opaque, warm, rough
and charred with soot. Chardin
balances the tonal values of the glass and the coffee pot by creating a
counterchange with the background. He carefully graduates the tone of the
background from dark on the right to light on the left. It is the harmonies and
contrasts that he builds into the visual elements of these ordinary objects
that make this painting extraordinary.
The
reason this piece was chosen was for the simplicity and the harmony. As Chardin
puts it, there is beauty in the everyday items that we don’t see because we are
too close. When He puts these items together, there is a geometrical beauty in
the symmetry and a beauty in contrast. One may have seen these elements every
morning and not even noticed them, and yet when they are pulled aside and
looked at in “the right light” one can see how beautiful they are. I love the
simplicity because the viewer then stops and looks at three or four simple
object and focuses on what the value is in them. The viewer’s eyes are drawn to
the symmetry without even realizing what is happening. There’s not much to the
picture, but the artist wanted to show the beauty in simplicity instead of
extravagance, which is why it was chosen for this gallery.
Violin and Guitar
Juan
Gris
Violin
and Guitar
Oil on Canvas, Painting
100 x 65.5 cm
1913
Juan
Gris (1887-1927) was born in Madrid where he studied mechanical drawing at the
Escuela de Artes y Manufacturas, during which time he contributed drawings to
local periodicals. From 1904 to 1905 he studied painting with the academic
artist José Maria Carbonero. In 1906 he moved to Paris where Gris followed the
lead of another friend and fellow countryman, Pablo Picasso. Gris refined the
cubist vocabulary into his own instantly recognizable visual language. He is
often referred to as ‘the third cubist’ beside Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.
Juan Gris was more calculating than any other Cubist painter in the way he
composed his pictures. Every element of a painting was considered with
classical precision: line, shape, tone, color and pattern were carefully
refined to create an interlocking arrangement free from any unnecessary
decoration or detail. The
whole idea of space is rearranged – the front, back and sides of the subject
become interchangeable elements. Gris’ images combine his observation with
memory of the subject to create a poetic evocation of the theme.
Violin
and Guitar is a magisterial statement that marked 1913 as the beginning of
Gris's mature art. Here he combines the inherent dignity and poetic quality of
the objects with an exploration of their three-dimensional aspects. An
essentially cruciform composition underlies the whole and lends a hierarchical
air; however, as with his use of the golden section, Gris was never absolutely
precise in making his measurements fit a predetermined scheme. The painting is
built on a series of pictorial rhymes among the forms of the guitar, violin,
and glass. Gris's predilection for rhymes, or rhythms based on visual
similarities, has been compared to the techniques of the poets who were so much
a part of his milieu, but it can also be found in the art of his colleagues.
More fundamentally poetic is the spirited flight of artistic manipulation that
occurs in the central section, juxtaposed with the conventional world
symbolized by the wood molding, wallpaper, and floorboards of a surrounding
room. These background details establish a representational setting as well as
a pictorial plane of possibilities. This richly detailed room should be seen as
having fantastic associations for Gris since he reportedly lived in utter
squalor.
This
piece was chosen to look at the different styles of still life, since still
life is meant to look at object in different ways. This painting offers one the
ability to look at a simple object in a new way with different dimensions. It
takes the style of still life to a new level- that is a different dimension.
Two seemingly extravagant objects are seen in different ways and portrayed in
varying places, without knowing there’s a violin and a guitar one might miss
the latter entirely. But it makes the viewer pause, there’s a lot going on in
the painting yet there’s just a small amount depicted. There’s much symbolism
in that which causes the viewer to think about the “conventional world” in a new
light.
[Dandelion Seeds]
William
Henry Fox Talbot
[Dandelion
Seeds]
Photogravure
Sheet: 15.1 x 11.3 cm
Plate: 12.5 x 9.4 cm
Image: 10.5 x 7.6 cm
1858
William Henry
Fox Talbot (1800–1877) was one of the first photographers and made major
contributions to the photographic process. He is also remembered as the holder
of a patent which affected the early development of photography in England.
He was
educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained the
Person prize in 1820, and graduated as twelfth wrangler in 1821. From 1822 to
1872 he frequently communicated papers to the Royal Society, many of them on
mathematical subjects. At an early period he had begun his optical researches,
which were to have such important results in connection with photography.
Talbot's
original contributions included the concept of a negative from which many
positive prints can be made, and the use of gallic acid for developing latent
image. Talbot
was also a noted photographer who made major contributions to the development
of photography as an artistic medium. His work in the 1840s on photo-mechanical
reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the
precursor to photogravure.
This
experimental proof is a fine example of the capacity of Talbot's
"photoglyphic engraving" to produce photographic results that could
be printed on a press, using printer's ink-a more permanent process than
photographs made with light and chemicals. The image here was photographically
transferred to the copper engraving plate by laying the seeds directly on the
photosensitized plate and exposing it to light, without the aid of a camera.
Equally reminiscent of Talbot's early experiments, this image is part of
Talbot's lifelong effort to apply his various photographic inventions to the
field of botany. In a letter tipped into the Bertoloni Album, Talbot wrote, "I
think that my newly invented art will be a great help to botanists". Such
uses were still prominent in Talbot's thinking years later when developing his
photogravure process; he noted in 1863 that "if this art [of photoglyphic
engraving] had been invented a hundred years ago, it would have been very
useful during the infancy of botany."
This piece is
interesting due to it just seeming to be a photograph of dandelion seeds, yet
there is much background to this piece and it’s unintentionally being artistic
without trying. This piece was chosen first because it was a different way of
still life, using photography and engraving being a unique process. And the
fact that the artist pioneered this as photography was just beginning and he
was not really intending to create a new art medium. This piece is both
historic and simplistically beautiful. The viewer wonders how this is seen, it
appears to be through a lens but one may interpret how- a camera, microscope,
telescope- and that all depends on how one views the world. The history behind
the piece made me want to bring it into the gallery, and yet the more one sees
the piece the more it causes one to think (or even have the opposite effect by
clearing one’s mind and imagining the seeds flowing on the wind).
Roses
Vincent van Gogh
Roses
Oil on Canvas, Painting
71 x 90 cm
1890
Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist Master whose innovative artwork powerfully influenced modern Expressionism, Fauvism, and early abstraction. Astoundingly prolific, Van Gogh produced all of his work during a 10-year period, at one point, creating 150 paintings and drawings within one year. Painting outdoors, Van Gogh uniquely captured the nighttime nuances of light and shadow, and was also renowned for his paintings of sunflowers and irises. Tormented by mental illness for most of his life, Van Gogh created many of his masterpieces while he was institutionalized. Although Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime, he is now regarded as one of the most profoundly influential artists of the 19th century.
Roses was painted shortly before Van Gogh's release from the asylum at Saint–Rémy. He felt he was coming to terms with his illness—and himself. In this healing process, painting was all–important. During those final three weeks of his recovery, he wrote his brother Theo, he had "worked as in a frenzy. Great bunches of flowers, violet irises, big bouquets of roses..." This is one of two rose paintings Van Gogh made at that time. It is among his largest and most beautiful still lifes, with an exuberant bouquet in the glory of full bloom. Although he sometimes assigned certain meanings to flowers, Van Gogh did not make a specific association for roses. It is clear, though, that he saw all blossoming plants as celebrations of birth and renewal—as full of life. That sense is underscored here by the fresh spring green of the background. The undulating ribbons of paint, applied in diagonal strokes, animate the canvas and play off the furled forms of flowers and leaves. Originally, the roses were pink—the color has faded—and would have created a contrast of complementary colors with the green. Such combinations of complements fascinated Van Gogh.
This piece was chosen for the gallery due to the beauty of the piece. Roses have always been a symbol of beauty, and this is depicted in a state when the roses are between full bloom and decay. The way this artist depicts his art has always called to a more subconscious level, and this piece is no exception. The line and colors speak as though they are from a dream or distant memory, somewhat blending together, and yet the roses still stand out. The piece also has a tranquil state to it. Unlike some of the others it may not make one question the beauty or symbolism, yet it has the Still Life feature of making one pause to look upon it’s beauty and subject.
Roses
Oil on Canvas, Painting
1890
Vincent Van Gogh (1853 – 1890) was a Dutch post-Impressionist Master whose innovative artwork powerfully influenced modern Expressionism, Fauvism, and early abstraction. Astoundingly prolific, Van Gogh produced all of his work during a 10-year period, at one point, creating 150 paintings and drawings within one year. Painting outdoors, Van Gogh uniquely captured the nighttime nuances of light and shadow, and was also renowned for his paintings of sunflowers and irises. Tormented by mental illness for most of his life, Van Gogh created many of his masterpieces while he was institutionalized. Although Van Gogh only sold one painting during his lifetime, he is now regarded as one of the most profoundly influential artists of the 19th century.
Roses was painted shortly before Van Gogh's release from the asylum at Saint–Rémy. He felt he was coming to terms with his illness—and himself. In this healing process, painting was all–important. During those final three weeks of his recovery, he wrote his brother Theo, he had "worked as in a frenzy. Great bunches of flowers, violet irises, big bouquets of roses..." This is one of two rose paintings Van Gogh made at that time. It is among his largest and most beautiful still lifes, with an exuberant bouquet in the glory of full bloom. Although he sometimes assigned certain meanings to flowers, Van Gogh did not make a specific association for roses. It is clear, though, that he saw all blossoming plants as celebrations of birth and renewal—as full of life. That sense is underscored here by the fresh spring green of the background. The undulating ribbons of paint, applied in diagonal strokes, animate the canvas and play off the furled forms of flowers and leaves. Originally, the roses were pink—the color has faded—and would have created a contrast of complementary colors with the green. Such combinations of complements fascinated Van Gogh.
This piece was chosen for the gallery due to the beauty of the piece. Roses have always been a symbol of beauty, and this is depicted in a state when the roses are between full bloom and decay. The way this artist depicts his art has always called to a more subconscious level, and this piece is no exception. The line and colors speak as though they are from a dream or distant memory, somewhat blending together, and yet the roses still stand out. The piece also has a tranquil state to it. Unlike some of the others it may not make one question the beauty or symbolism, yet it has the Still Life feature of making one pause to look upon it’s beauty and subject.
Still Life with Flowers and Fruit
Claude
Monet
Still
Life with Flowers and Fruit
Oil on Canvas, Painting
39 3/8 x 31 3/4 in.
1869
Claude Monet (1840-1926)
was a successful caricaturist in his native Le Havre, but after studying
plein-air landscape painting, he moved to Paris in 1859. He soon met future
Impressionists Camille Pissarro and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Renoir and Monet
began painting outdoors together in the late 1860s, laying the foundations of
Impressionism. In 1874, with Pissarro and Edgar Degas, Monet helped organize
the Société Anonyme des Artistes, Peintres, Sculpteurs, Graveurs, etc., the
formal name of the Impressionists' group. During the 1870s Monet developed his
technique for rendering atmospheric outdoor light, using broken, rhythmic brushwork.
By the
1880s, his paintings started selling; Pissarro accused him of commercialism,
and younger painters called him passé, for he remained loyal to the
Impressionists' early goal of capturing the transitory effects of nature
through direct observation. In 1890 he
began creating paintings in series, depicting the same subject under various
conditions and at different times of the day. His late pictures, made when he
was half-blind, are shimmering pools of color almost totally devoid of form.
Although painted
in his studio, this still life shows the influence of the outdoor experiments
that Claude Monet undertook in the summer and fall of 1869, while he was living
at Bougival on the Seine River. His exercises in different painting techniques
are seen in the way he softened the outlines of forms and the manner in which
he explored the descriptive possibilities of brushstrokes: broad and flat in
the tablecloth, sketchy in the apples, and short and dense in the flower
petals. Monet's technique is also apparent in the use of light to animate the
surfaces of the flowers, fruit, and tablecloth and in the way the colors are
affected by the light, by reflections, and by each other. These pictorial
innovations became the foundation for the development of the Impressionist
technique in the decades that followed.
This piece was
chosen due to the vibrancy of the painting. Unlike some other paintings, the
piece calls the viewer’s attention with the bright color and beautiful
arrangement. This piece also engages the viewer’s senses by making one almost
smell flowers and taste the fresh summer fruit on a bright day. There seems to
be an abundance which may call the viewer to think of prosperous times of
plenty. There’s some symbolism that can be taken away by interpretation, which
is key for a simple still life such as this one. I enjoy the works which bring
a calming sense with them such as this one, where many still lifes are dark,
this is bright and soft. It is wonderful when one can be called by beauty such
as this one does, it shows the beauty first and the meaning second which is why
it was picked for the gallery.
Still Life with Bananas and Orange
Edward
Weston
Still
Life with Bananas and Orange
Gelatin silver print, Photograph
7 7/16 x 9 5/16 in.
1927
Edward Henry
Weston (1886-1958) began photographing at the age of sixteen after receiving a
Bull’s Eye #2 camera from his father. Weston’s first photographs captured the
parks of Chicago and his aunt’s farm. In 1906, following the publication of his
first photograph in Camera and Darkroom, Weston moved to California. After
working briefly as a surveyor for San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake
Railroad, he began working as an itinerant photographer. In Los Angeles, he was
employed as a retoucher at the George Steckel Portrait Studio. In 1909, Weston
moved on to the Louis A. Mojoiner Portrait Studio as a photographer and
demonstrated outstanding abilities with lighting and posing. Weston opened his
own portrait studio in Tropico, California. This would be his base of operation
for the next two decades. Weston became successful working in soft-focus,
pictorial style; winning many salons and professional awards. Weston gained an
international reputation for his high key portraits and modern dance studies.
Articles about his work were published in magazines such as American
Photography, Photo Era and Photo Miniature. In 1912, Weston met photographer
Margrethe Mather in his Tropico studio. Mather becomes his studio assistant and
most frequent model for the next decade. After moving back to California in
1926, Weston began his work for which he is most deservedly famous: natural
forms, close-ups, nudes, and landscapes. Between 1927 and 1930, Weston made a
series of monumental close-ups of seashells, peppers, and halved cabbages,
bringing out the rich textures of their sculpture-like forms. Weston moved to
Carmel, California in 1929 and shot the first of many photographs of rocks and
trees at Point Lobos, California.
“To clearly express my feeling for life with
photographic beauty, present objectively the texture, rhythm, form in nature,
without subterfuge or evasion in technique or spirit, to record the
quintessence of the object or element before my lens, rather than an
interpretation, a superficial phase, or passing mood-- this is my way in
photography.” So
wrote Edward Weston in 1927, the year in which he made this still life
composition. The skin of the fruit is rendered in precise detail, with the
bruises and marks on the bananas becoming graphic strokes of the camera's
"brush." The pocked surface of the citrus fruit is also clearly
delineated, while the orange's center reveals an anomalous organic form.
He uses
bananas with bruises and he shows the deformed part of the orange. This speaks
to his beliefs in photography and life, photos should not try to be perfect,
just keep them the way they are, and they will be beautiful. Also the way that
the bananas surround the orange, making it stand out more and contrast with the
many bananas
This piece was
chosen because photography has always been a way of capturing beauty in an
instance, in a way of pausing that beauty forever. This piece has such contrast
and the subject matter makes one stop and think. Most still lifes pause beauty
with their color and portray perfect beautiful things. Yet this shows
imperfections and lack of color, though it is still a way of showing life-
imperfect and sometimes drained of color yet everyday has beauty in it. While
the bananas may have bruises that also means they are ripe and ready, much like
people being bruised yet ready for the next day. The underlying subject matter
is why this piece was chosen; the picture stops it’s beauty in time and makes
the viewer think beyond the piece.
Still-life with Chair Caning
Pablo Picasso
Still-life with Chair Caning
Oil on oil-cloth over canvas edged with
rope
29 × 37 cm
1912
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) created over 22,000
pieces of work during his career. These pieces included paintings, sculpture
work, and a series of graphic design work which he had created over the course
of his career. Over the extensive career, Picasso had a hand in every art form
and movement that came through, during the 20th century. Not only that, he also
co-founded cubism, which was one of the most popular movements during the 20th
century, and was what he was most well-known for with most of the works he
created. Comical
and fantasy were the types of work that Picasso focused on, as his career moved
forward, and as he drew closer to the end of his career. Graphic arts,
ceramics, and sculpture work, were the methods that he drew on most, as opposed
to painting and etched works, which were the predominant choices early on in
his career. During this time, he produced thousands of stage designs, illustrations,
and a series of drawings, which represented these themes, and distinct styles.
Compositionally,
this image uses strong dark line to break up and segment the varying elements
dissecting them. The viewer’s eye is drawn from the far left of the composition
at the lettering, to roll around the circular shape created by the rope, to the
bottom right, essentially beginning with the chair-caning and ending with it.
The letters j.o.u can clearly be seen in the top left segment. There are
various opinions of the significance of this with some suggesting it was
Picasso's turn in a game between Picasso and Braque to include words and
lettering into their art, or it may also have been playful attempt at
establishing a talking point in the work itself. Compared to many other Cubist
works this work is much smaller, however rather than just being a small art
work, the size can create intimacy, inviting the viewer to get close and
personal with the work to investigate the fine details contained within.
Similar to Braque’s Woman With a Guitar and other Cubist works, Still-life with
Chair Caning invites close inspection of the individual details as well as the
artwork as a whole. Picasso's Still-life with Chair Caning marked a distinctive
shift in Modern Art with the introduction of collage and the distinctive change
in treatment of the subject through abstraction.
This piece was chosen because of its subject matter. Picasso’s work always causes one to stop and ponder, whether the viewer tries to focus on one part of the picture or moves from one subject to the other, the viewer tries to see the objects in a new light. It looks at some objects in a partial way, and others are viewed from different perspectives. Since still life looks at objects from a new viewpoint already, Picasso takes it to another dimension, showing the objects in a newer dimension that is not in a traditional sense. There is such contrast in the depiction of the objects, almost as if portraying life in a blur of reality and only memory. This still life embodies what still lifes try to do, and that is making the viewer pause and look at something differently, seeing beauty in simplicity or meaning in the everyday mundane
Still Life with a Chinese Porcelain Jar
Willem Kalf
Still Life with a Chinese Porcelain Jar
Oil on Canvas, Painting
30 3/4 x 26 in.
1669
Willem Kalf
(1619-1693) was a student of Hendrik Pot, a painter of historical
subjects, and probably also of the painter Cornelis Saftleven. Kalf chose still
life as his subject matter, his earlier work depicted kitchen interiors
with such elements as gourds and pots and pans strewn on the floor, whereas his
later work was more elaborate- depicting luxurious compositions featuring such
expensive and extraordinary objects as goblets, pewter, Venetian glass, and
Chinese porcelain atop a marble or tapestry-covered table such as the one
depicted here. His still life paintings used simple composition, dark
background, and acutely perceived highlights.
When
Willem Kalf painted this luxurious still life, his home city of Amsterdam was
the trading center of Europe. Persian textiles, tropical fruits, and Asian
porcelains were just a few of the exotic commodities brought by intrepid Dutch
seafarers to the bustling markets of the capital.
The precious objects assembled here are
carefully arranged to celebrate both the painter's skill and the enterprising
spirit of Holland's golden age. On a marble tabletop, polished Dutch silver
reflects the sparkle of delicate Venetian glass, while a curling lemon peel
teases the senses of smell and taste. Reflections animate the glossy surface of
a Chinese export porcelain jar from the 1640s. The centerpiece of the
composition is a Dutch roemer, or wine glass, with an
elaborate gilded mount. At its base, a cherub clutches a cornucopia,
symbolizing peace and plenty, but the rumpled carpet seems to offer only a
precarious support. At left, a ticking watch signals the passage of time. While
enjoying their worldly success, Dutch Calvinist burghers valued such reminders
that their earthly prosperity was no substitute for eternal salvation
This
piece was chosen because of its depth in color and subject matter. The colors
are somewhat dark causing the viewer to look deep at the painting, and from object
to object slowly. The Chinese Jar grabs the attention first and then the viewer
makes his way across the table. It appears that the objects are idly tossed
across the table, yet there is a sense of precision and beauty. The glass and
porcelain objects are expensive and yet used with everyday objects like a
platter and fruit. It brings together the extraordinary and the ordinary into
everyday life.
Conclusion
Through this experience as a curator, I have learned exactly what I find to be artistic. I looked at multiple pictures, paintings, and photographs and chose things that spoke to me. To me, art needs to define beauty, whether it is directly or indirectly. And through the process I found that seeing the beauty was easy for me, once something caught my attention I looked deeper into the beauty that it conveyed. What was harder was trying to find variety, I did not want the viewers to see the same pictures over and over again with the same style, because that isn't what I would want to see if I went to an exhibit. So as a curator I had to really seek beautiful Still Life art, and in different forms with some different mediums. From looking for variety and beauty I found that almost all the art I chose had some form of simplicity and yet depth. They all make the viewer stop and wonder why the painting was made and through that thinking it made me see that all the artists were trying to show the viewer that there is more to the world around us, if we stop to look. That's exactly what all the pieces in this gallery do, they make the viewer stop and think and thus create individual emotion- simply put, an appreciation for Still Life Art.
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