Sharp-eyed Dutch chef Ernst de Witte took one look at van Gogh’s “Red Cabbages and Onions” (1887) and knew something was wrong.
Still life
Posted inBooks
A Fresh Look at Flowers in Photography
Can photographers capture the vitality of flowers compellingly, innovatively, and beautifully? A new book gives a resounding yes.
Posted inOpinion
Elon Musk’s Strange Twitter Still Life
What does it mean when the world’s richest person trolls us?
Posted inBooks
Walter Murch Sought to “Paint the Air” Between His Eye and His Subject
Murch’s painted dust can be so tangible you feel compelled to wipe off the picture.
Posted inBooks
Robert Vas Dias’s Words Explore the Fact of Things
In a hybrid text combining criticism and poems Robert Vas Dias explores the paradoxes of still life painting.
Posted inBooks
A Forgotten Female Flower Painter, Revived
One hundred years after Mary Hiester Reid’s death, Flower Diary recovers the elusive, overlooked artist’s life and work
Posted inArt
When the Exhibition Becomes a Work of Art
Who would have thought that still lifes would create such a strong reaction?
Posted inArt
The Story of Charles Ethan Porter, an African American Still-Life Painter
Porter’s struggle, and the ensuing invisibility of his work, are as much a part of his story as his masterful paintings that dignify humble everyday objects.
Posted inArt
Rehabilitating the Untrendy Tradition of Still Life Painting
In their two-artist show at Mrs. Gallery, Sarah Bedford and Tracy Miller offer complementary approaches to bringing the historically devalued genre of still life painting into the 21st century.
Posted inNews
Study of 500 Years of Still Lifes Confirms We’ve Long Had an Appetite for Exotic Foods
The Dutch loved painting lemons; Italians, oranges and pears. Meanwhile, artists from the US and France were the most likely to incorporate the humble cracker into their canvases.
Posted inArt
Some Doritos with Your Goya? Old Master Still Lifes Get an Update
With a bit too much time on my hands and a subscription to Adobe Photoshop I have been playing with an idea: what will happen to traditional still life paintings when elements from contemporary life are grafted into them?
Posted inArt
A Poetics of Appropriation: On Sharon Core
Sharon Core does not simply make photographs of still lifes that exactly re-create paintings, she creates the still lifes — literally.
