In the Presence of Things. Four Centuries of European Still-Life Painting Part Two: 1840 - 1955

Following the show presented in 2010, the second part will focus on modern still life in the 19th century and on the fundamental changes which occurred during the first half of the 20th century.

A revival of interest in still life among avant garde painters in France will be illustrated through the works of the Realists and the new stylistic language of Impressionism. A centerpiece of this part of the show will be the museum’s own Still-life with Melon by Claude Monet. At the end of the 19th century still life was particularly appealing to Post-Impressionist painters like Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin, who will be represented by a number of key loans.

The exhibition will show the transformation of the genre into a vehicle for ever more radical pictorial experimentation in the work of Picasso, Braque and Matisse. Still-life will be shown to have allowed artists to engage and critique contemporary society. It was also overlaid with the new realities of the subjective experience in the work of Magritte and Dalí. The fragmentation and reinvention of the very category of still life will be explored through sculptures and artists’ use of actual objects as works of art.

This is the proposed journey of stil-life painting in Western Art through different ages and geographical places, illustrated with major works by painters who have treated this artistic genre. Still life was the pretext for painters’ explorations, and it is the source of fascination to many museum visitors.