Part 2 Research Point 2

17th Century Dutch Still Life and Flower Painters: The genre of still life painting was extremely popular in Holland during the 17th century. I have to admit that I am not a number one fan of paintings with such a high degree of realism but I can't help but admire them for the obvious skill involved in achieving them.

These paintings usually featured opulent and exotic object reflecting the life style of collectors for example Willem Kalf 'Still Life with Lobser, Drinking Horn and Glass'. This is full of texture and great depth with very fine detail. The light is soft and warm and the luxurious objects have a jewel like quality.
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/willem-kalf-still-life-with-drinking-horn

Symbolic/Iconographic (Vanitas) Paintings:
Pieter Claesz 'A Vanitas Still Life'

Painted in warm monochromatic tones, again bathed in warm light seemingly sunlight from a window above, also sugested in the reflection off the glass. The theme is meant to be the transience of earthly life. Te skull represents death - feature of many 'Vanitas' paintings. The watch symbllized time forever moving on and the overturned glass - life flowing away.

Jan Davidsz de Heem 'Still Life of Dessert'
This is incredibly detailed. The objects are arrenged to give a look of casual abandon as though they are the leftovers of a sumptuous feast - the increase in affluence among Dutch society  was due to improved efficiencies in food production and increased manufacture, exportation and importation of goods. Though the subject of leftover food might sound mundane it was the remains of such a sumtuous feast as to appear quit tempteing. Along with the white tablecloth, it emerges from andcontrasts strongly with the dark background. The shiny ornate looking vessels ans plated at add to the ostentatious look as do the rich drapes in the dark background.

History
Still Life only became a subject in its own right early in the 17th Century after the Reformation, which brought about the end in popularity of religious paintings in Northern Europe. Before this time still life usually formed only part of a larger scene.


Still Life was also popular in Spain during the 17th century, less so in Italy with the odd exception ie. Carravagio. It didn't catch on in France until the18th Century where trompe l'oeil was commisioned French Aristocrats containing opulent arrangements of food and drink.
In contrast Jean-Simeon Chardin chose to paint ordinary humble items on a small scale bringing with the effect of bringing their great beauty to life.

In the 19th Century certain continued to paint still life subject, which fell from favour for a while in comparison to other genres. Although many famous artists included still life in their work. The changed with the experimental techniques of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. Notable amongst them were Paul Cezanne whou was at forefront of reviving still life as an important art form. His style greatly influenced the development on Cubism. Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers', 1888 is another well known still life example. Those of Henri Matisse who belonged to the group of 'Fauves' artists, otherwise known as the Wild Beasts, loved to explore the use of bold colour, simplified perspective and forms and in many cases the use of shapes with bold outlines.

20th Century
Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso were regarded as the pioneers of Cubism in the early 1900s, though, being great admirers of  Cezanne, they were influenced by his methods. Braque invented the use of paper colle (pasted paper) in a way which went against conventional perspective  and modelling methods, creating a flat appearance. Their approach (like Cezanne's) was concerned more with how to arrange colour to give flat abstract look than the rules of perspective. They would use multiple viewpoints for a subject rather than only one, painting many still lifes bordering on abstract. Juan Gris developed his own unique version of Cubism.

 Picasso - STILL LIFE   WITH BASKET OF FRUIT c.1910

Many more styles have evolved and flourished since then and a wide range of approaches have been tried.

Some artists combined realism with abstraction, such as the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe in her flower painting close-ups, and the more abstract orientated Stuart Davis.
Giorgio Morandi very successfully made a long running and thorough exploration of everyday objects such as bottles, boxes and jars in muted colours. MC Escher was famous for his creations of optical illusions, one such being 'Still Life and Street'.

Morandi - STILL LIFE WITH JUG AND BOTTLE

Joan Miro is well known for surrealist floating images but this particular still life painting, full of  symbolism about political oppression, is quite realistic in style.
http://www.actingoutpolitics.com/joan-miro-sees-the-violent-end-of-the-tradition-of-still-life-as-a-symbol-of-harmony-with-nature-in-western-painting-%E2%80%93-miro%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cstill-life-with-old-shoe%E2%80%9D-1937/

Wayne Thiebaud began slightly before pop art but is often regarded as a pop artist, producing work in a very similar vein. Well known are his paintings of mass produced food displays - simplified to their basic shapes. He has been influenced by both proto pop and abstractionism.
There are quite an array of tasty looking goodies on this site:
http://www.theswellelife.com/swelle_life/2013/01/the-delicious-world-of-wayne-thiebaud.html

Moving along to the present, Glenn Brown - is known for his modern, often distorted and sometimes controversial reinterpreted abstractions of well known artworks by famous artists.

'I do not feel embarrassed at attempting to express sadness and loneliness' is meant to be based on a painting of a vase of flowers by Van Gogh, I suspect it is the famous painting of sunflowers.

William Scott