101 Years of Still Life: 1920 - Present

Kohn Gallery is pleased to announce 101 Years of Still Life: 1920 – Present, an exciting group show spanning generations of artists whose varied Still Life practices resonate with the history of the genre as well as with the styles and concerns of artists working today.

Traditionally, Dutch Still Life or Stilleven symbolically imbue objects as markers of class and identity. Representing a move away from the art of the Reformation, in which paintings served as moralistic religious mantras, Stilleven shifted the focus away from organized religion and onto the individual. The Still Life identified objects of luxury, such as out of season fruit, blooming fresh flowers, and exorbitantly expensive dairy products as markers of financial and cultural capital, while also borrowing the solemnity, drama, and moralistic tones of the Baroque period to portray mundane objects as momento mori and reminders of the transience of life.

Contemporary Still Life serves a similar purpose in identifying the cultural and moralistic footprint as well as the financial status of the individual while approaching the subject in a significantly different aesthetic style. Taking influence from Pop Art and Minimalism these works depict the mundane object, but omit the visual clutter and religious seriousness of the Baroque, instead de-personalizing the compositions with depictions of mass-produced objects and Bauhaus inspired design. The Still Life poses new questions about our values as a society. Are we simplifying our luxury items as a roundabout means of de-cluttering our lives from visually exhausting stimuli and thus preserving out energy in a burnout culture? Or are these items humanistic tools to help us find new ways of conforming with mass culture and are an attempt to adopt a morally and spiritually “woke” approach to life.