Still life, still standing

The imitation of inanimate objects, to reproduce their exact likeness, forms the crux of the ‘Still Life’ genre of painting. With its heyday in 16th-century Flanders, still life continues to be the mainstay of many art schools. The genre involves carefully placing objects – alone or in tandem with others – and demonstrating their finesse in copying and capturing the play of light. While these objects appear ‘real’, the representation is staged. Many, however, peg photograph as that purgatorial spot between the object and its painted form for its far more exact flattened representation of the 3D object/s.

Using photography as the medium, Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam has collaborated with Jehangir Nicholson Art Foundation (JNAF) at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) Mumbai for the ongoing Still/Life. The exhibition has 48 still life-inspired photographs by 16 Dutch photographers, showcasing the various shades of this genre, inspired by 17th-century Dutch painting traditions.

For instance, still life, almost always, showcases ordinary natural or man-made objects in abundance and at their most attractive. So, the juiciest apple, the freshest lily, the clearest glass of water, etc,. Like the products in advertisements photoshopped to satiate the senses, the objects are devoid of dust and decay. Case in point are the stylistic portraits of the humble potato by Anuschka Blommers and Niels Schumm, which appear like diamonds in the rough with blemish and sprout-free skin, unlike the appetising, frugal starch-fest Van Gogh’s The Potato Eaters found them to be. 

And not always does the painter need the physical presence of their muse. Objects in one frame can be sourced from memory, or a photograph. Like Scheltens & Abbenes’ big, fat Bouquet series of vegetables, fruits and flowers, all cut out from art journals and magazines, all held in place by visible duct tape and photographed as a bunch in full bloom.

Eva-Fiore Kovacovsky plays with the idea of still life as a ‘frozen’ image, with Frozen Still Life (2012) just like a photograph, where a freezer becomes a mini-theatre and the freezing cabbage plays the ‘actor’. Johannes Schwartz’s still-lifes involve larger-than-life photographs of installations he created from discarded barbershop paraphernalia. Living the idiom, ‘A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet’, Uta Eisenreich’s video art A (2009) assigns the NATO Phonetic code to 26 objects, from calling an apple ‘alpha’ to zebra, ‘zulu’. Or Still/Life’s poster child piece, Eisenreich’s Cutting Edge, a knife-and-light play that pays ode to the sole aim of all still life artists – show off their copy paint skills.

Time Freeze

• Many peg photograph as that purgatorial spot between the object and its painted form for its far more exact flattened representation of the 3D object/s 

‘Still/Life’ is showing at Jehangir Nicholson Gallery (JNAF) at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya till February 10, 2019