Still life is one of the oldest genres in art history. What still makes the fascination of the inanimate motif for both artists and viewers?? Maybe it’s the wartime silence or the realization that the first glance is only superficial: is there another level of meaning behind what is shown??
Works from 1930
The erlangen art museum has in its collection a rough number of paintings and prints that belong to the genre of still life. The earliest works date from around 1930. They show the stylistic features of the preceding classical modernism with impressionism, expressionism and new objectivity. In the same spirit, many artists in the post-war period treated still life as a pictorial theme.
In recent decades, there has been a return to old master fine painting, with a focus on both fantastic arrangements and classical compositions. With a socially critical but also subtle eye, the artists unexpectedly create new motifs in photorealistic works.
This broad spectrum will be presented in this year’s rough themed exhibition at the erlangen art museum, with works from the museum’s collection as well as loans from contemporary french artists.
Artists involved
The participating artists are herbert bessel, liselotte blencke, diego bianconi, peter bina, wolfgang bohm, jutta cuntze, jakob dietz, karl dorrfub, hans-jorg durr, michael engelhardt, walter forster, otto grau, friedrich grone, barbara grone-trux, lydia hasselt, roland hanusch, fritz heidingsfeld, regine herzog, georg hetzelein, martha heubeck, joseph A. Hirtz, manfred honig, helmut jahn, christian klaiber, eitel klein, ulrich koditz, roger libesch, rainer pohlitz, rudolf schieder, oskar J. Stanik, helmut C. Walter, erika wiener, hermann wilhelm and claudia wirth.