STILL-LIFE Painting Presentation

1^st Year Painting Rotation Project

The Scale of Still-Life

During the next three weeks, you will be using the drawings you have made based on your experiences of Cardiff, along with an object(s) to create a Still-Life painting that explores composition, scale, and painting in general.

The subject of Still-Life through the history of painting is vast, going back hundreds of years. The examples in this presentation will give a very brief insight into how the subject of Still-Life has been dealt with in various ways by painters from the Fifteen Hundreds to the present day. 

Pieter Aertsen, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, 1552, Oil on Wood, 60 x 101.5cm. 

As early 1552, artists like Pieter Aersten was experimenting with scale and composition within the Still-Life genre. In Christ in the House of Mary and Martha we see what appears to be a huge leg of lamb, a wodge of butter, and a gigantic open draw in comparison to the religious scene in the back ground to the left. Is this scene played out by real people in another room, or is it a small painting propped up behind the still life in the foreground? We see a play on scale, and also movement in the second example by Aertsen. The Still-Life in the foreground of the painting is made up of small paintings, shells, sculptures, est. Again, there is what could be a room in the background where real people are contemplating another picture, but, depending on how we look at it, this could be another painting hanging on the wall of the background. Within the Sill-Life in the foreground, the play on movement comes in the form of the statue of the couple who seem to be wrestling. At first glance it is just a statue, but, if we compare it to the paintings hanging on the wall in the background, one of the figures seems to be reaching to grab its frame, and so seem full of life compared to the other art lying around.

Paul Cézanne, Still Life with Teapot, 1902-1906, Oil on Canvas, 61.4 x 74.3 cm

Jump forward a few hundred years to 1902, and we can see C zanne’s take on the Still-Life tradition. This work can be seen at the National Gallery. Cézanne used Still-Life to investigate how we see through space and time, which result in paintings that at first may seem ‘wonky’. These Still-Life paintings by Cézanne were to have a massive effect on art in the twentieth century. 

Ernst Luwig Kirchner, Still Life with Flowers and Sculptures, 1912, 90 x 78.3cm

Here is a Still-Life painted in the German Expressionist mode by Kirchner. Like Aertsen, Kirchner uses Still-Life to play with scale, but also includes some of his own work; his sculpture. We see a table, on which is a vase of flowers, a book, a carved pot, and two free standing sculptures. But whether they are sculptures or not is thrown into doubt by the other figures that populate the background and foreground of the painting; are they real people looking at a giant Still-Life, are they part of a decorative cloth that has been hung up behind the Still-Life, or, are they also sculptures?

Pablo Picasso, Still Life with Mask, Cardboard, Wood and Button on Canvas, 1937

This Still-Life by Picasso shows that Still-Life ‘painting’ doesn’t even need to be made up of paint. He uses the Still-Life, like Cézanne, as a chance to experiment. The mask in this Still-Life doesn’t need to be painted; a real mask made out of a cardboard box is stuck on instead and seems to stare at the viewer. A ‘real’ wooden table is suggested by wood glued to the canvas. What may be a bottle or a guitar, and a glass, are playfully made out of scraps of card, labels, and a button.

Henri Matisse, Grand Intérieur Rouge, 1948, Oil on Canvas, 146 X 971cm.

In this work, what at first looks like an interior is really a painting about Still-Life. In this single painting, Matisse has managed to paint four Still-Life arrangements, without cluttering the composition. He does this with a few simple tricks; The ‘real’ still-life on the table on the left is reflected on the mirror above it, giving Matisse the excuse of painting it again from a different angle and in a different style. The ‘real’ Still-Life on the table on the right, stands in front of a painting of another still-life that Matisse painted in the past.

Rene Magritte, Personal Values, 1952, Oil on Canvas, 80x100 cm.

Magritte used the Still-Life to create often psychologically disturbing atmospheres. The every-day objects lying about in Personal Values would not look out of place if it was not for their size and placement. The bar of soap seems to stare at itself in the mirror. The comb stands up against what could be a wall papered with a cloud-scape, but on the other hand, it may be leaning/floating against a real sky – is the whole room floating? 

Philip Guston, Painters Table, 1973

Guston used the Still-Life to escape from the Abstract Expressionist way of painting that he was famous for. By painting what was around him in his studio, he developed a whole new way of working that he would be remembered for. In this Still-Life, amongst other important things, we can see the soles of shoes. These shoes would be piled up into monuments in later works.

 Philip Guston,  Painting, Smoking, Eating, 1973, Oil on Canvas

Here is another painting by Guston. It shows the artist in bed – not a Still-Life. But the composition does contain two Still-Lives. The pile of French fries on the painters chest is a great example of how anything can be still-life; its as though he’s just gone to McDonalds, bought some fries, covered them in ketchup, painted them, then probably eaten them. Also interesting is the background. Guston liked to paint piles of legs and shoes that became monumental Still-Life paintings. In this Painting, we are not sure whether there really is a massive pile of shoes behind the artists bed, or whether it is an earlier painting that has been propped up behind his bed.

 Andreas Rüthi, Froginard Cat, 2003, Oil on MDF, 65 x 96cm

In this painting we see a cat looking at a painting. It could be a giant cat looking at a tiny painting, or it could be a cat looking at a painting that is far, far away – this, like Guston earlier, on first glance is not a Still-Life, but if we look closely and notice the sheen on the cats ‘fur’, we realize that it not a real cat, but one made of china or plastic. The china cat and the painting are two objects that make up a still life. Even though we now know that the cat is fake, it’s almost impossible not to look at it without thinking that it’s ‘looking’ at the painting.

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Hopefully, these examples have shown you how important and wide ranging the genre of Still-Life is. It has been used to bring things to ‘life’ (Rüthi, Aertsen), play with scale (Aertsen, Guston, Rüthi), create psychological tension (Magritte), to break away from an imposing style (Guston), to paint past works and to use pictures within pictures (Matisse, Guston,  Rüthi, Aertsen), to using real objects (Picasso), and to revolutionize art (Cézanne).

Over the next three weeks, you will be exploring Still-Life.

This exploration should result in a finished piece of work that experiments with some of the themes and ideas that have been looked at in this presentation.

As a starting point, you need to take a drawing that you made during the drawing project last weekend, combine it with an object from this pile, and build up your own composition from this. Try to really think about what you are doing, and how you finished piece might be an original take on the Still-Life genre.

Your drawings could form the backdrop for something that’s happening with the object in the foreground. You might want to cut out parts of drawings and have them free standing / hanging above the object. You could blow the drawing up, or scale it down, or have it printed on another material.

Try lots of arrangements – this is important – how your things are placed.

From these arrangements, you should make drawings, studies, models and notes. Try to be as open and experimental as possible. This can be done in sketch books, on paper, with models etc….as long as it not all ‘done in your head’ – we need to be able to see it all.

While doing this in the studio, it is also important that you carry out some independent research into Still-Life. We have only covered a tiny fragment in this presentation, so it is important that you have a look for yourself, and record what you find (otherwise we won’t know what you have done!). This will be a good way to introduce yourself to some of the amazing books in the library, and the collections at the National Museum. This will also really help you to develop the ideas that you are exploring in the studio.

Based on your explorations in the studio, and the research on other artists, you should come up with at least one resolved piece that deals with Still-Life in a fresh and original way.

Have fun, work hard, and Good Luck!