From 15 July – 1 October 2017 The Lightbox gallery and museum will present ‘Is there still life in Still Life?’, a new Ingram Collection exhibition that will feature Modern British and contemporary interpretations of a humble genre with a centuries-old tradition.
Showcased by works drawn from The Ingram Collection, the exhibition will pose the question of still life’s ongoing relevance, with works in a variety of styles by artists such as Ruskin Spear, Sir Anthony Caro, Mark Gertler, and Anne Redpath.
As the lowest in the five of the ‘hierarchy of genres’ of art set by the French Academy in the seventeenth century – the first four being history painting, portraiture, scenes of everyday life and landscapes – Still Life was originally considered a lowly form of art for not featuring human subject matter. Paintings typically depicted an arrangement of inanimate, natural or man-made objects which might represent material pleasures, religion, love, the afterlife, or serve as a reminder of mortality.
This exhibition will feature Modern British responses to this classical genre, including ‘The Doll’ (1914) by Mark Gertler, a deeply coloured painting with an unnerving wooden doll among the assembled objects, and Sir Anthony Caro’s sculpture ‘Writing Piece – Hand’ (1978), a more abstract interpretation of still life formed by assembling found steel objects into an arrangement that almost resembles handwriting. Proving that current artists are still drawn to the genre, these pieces will be shown alongside contemporary still life responses.
15 July 2017 – 1 October 2017
£4.50 Day Pass or £7.50 Annual Pass | Under 18s Free
The Lightbox, Woking