Reflections on Still Life: Nine Minutes with Cavaliero Finn
A new exhibition that pays homage to the humble launches in Brixton on Friday November 25th. ‘Beauty in the Everyday’ features a series of Still Life art installations, curated by contemporary art and design gallery Cavaliero Finn, exploring how contemporary artists today produce their own unique take on the traditional still life through painting, drawing, photography, textiles, ceramics, sculpture and installation.
Brought over to the UK in the 17th century from the Netherlands and derived from the Dutch ‘Stileven’, the practice of turning inanimate, rather humdrum objects into a subject of beauty is one that has inspired artists throughout the centuries. Beauty in the Everyday presents a selection of work by over 20 artists and makers housed at Brixton East, a nineteenth century, disused furniture factory; its raw and minimal industrial finish offering the perfect backdrop to the contemporary artwork on show.
Cavaliero Finn was established by Juliana Cavaliero & Debra Finn in 2004. Showcasing works from emerging, mid-career and established contemporary artists and designers, Cavaliero Finn hosts regular exhibitions in London and Somerset and at various pop-up events. The gallery exhibits at several art fairs including the London Art Fair and provides an intimate consultative service to both corporate and private clients and museums.
After Nyne's Editor Claire Meadows spent nine minutes with Juliana and Debra ahead of the show.
Can you tell us why you selected the still life as a theme for this show?
As Cavaliero Finn represents a mix of painters, ceramicists, sculptors and designer makers we wanted to explore a theme that united all the disciplines and the Still Life Genre has influenced a lot of our artists in different ways. The genre was considered ‘low status’ in the 17th century but extremely popular and yet it has influenced artists throughout the ages in so many different ways: how they look at objects, lighting, the use of form and negative space and the use of everyday mundane objects in art. As curators this embodies our own practice. Debra and I have put together many shows in domestic spaces featuring both contemporary art and design in everyday environments. Still life seemed a natural fit for the gallery as well in this way.
What impact does the still life form have on contemporary art?
The still life form has a huge impact on contemporary art, both consciously and subconsciously. Morandi who painted simple objects was more interested in form and the relationship between the objects. He said ’Nothing is more abstract than reality’. Today the value systems have moved on further, and in many cases the very choosing and placement of objects is given artistic value. Collected objects have gained importance: assemblages, found art, installation, and readymade sculptures are also all part of the currency of the contemporary Still Life. You only have to consider Portia Munson’s Pink Project: Table which was so well received when it was exhibited at Frieze last month.
How did you select the artists for this show?
Some of our artists we represent were obvious choices for this show, such as Daniel Reynolds who has been making porcelain vegetables and handcrafted pots and Sam Edkins who has been referencing still life themes in his prints for upholstering antique chairs. Ceramicists Sophie Cook, Rhian Malin and Graham Clayton all produce beautiful groups of pots and vessels which reference the Still Life ‘arrangement’. Other artists have responded to the brief in other ways. Mizuyo Yamashita has made the milk urn from a still life painting and Alison Griffin has focused on the pattern used by Matisse in his Still Life with her I’m Not Going Home Yet painting. Helen Ballardie has made paintings that reference the Dutch masters flower compositions used in 17th Century Dutch Still life paintings. Tony Beaver paints the simple bowl using the dark background palette favoured by the Dutch masters. Trevor Burgess has referenced Manet in the composition of his painting ‘Car Boot Sale’.
We also wanted to invite new artists to contribute and have Akiko Hirai’s simple handmade irregular bottles which, when grouped together and lit well, look like they have been lifted from a Morandi painting. Jerwood fellowship painter Susan Sluglett is an expressive painter - a bunch of flowers is painted quickly with wild brushstrokes, and she references still life form, choosing to build something three-dimensional before starting a series of paintings as if the construction of the image needs to be felt before it can be depicted. Danuta Solowiej elevates the everyday peeled apple and pear into objects of great beauty reproducing them in a simple white earthenware.
How does this show fit with the ethos of Cavaliero Finn’s curatorial practice?
One of the founding principles of Cavaliero Finn was that we would always exhibit art that people could buy and could live with; our portfolio of work for this show and every show we have ever done is filled with pieces that have provenance but are accessible on a number of levels, as well as being beautiful and thought provoking. For us, art shouldn’t have to be something unobtainable and incomprehensible or intellectual to have value - neither should its form be dictated.
We love putting together work of different mediums and see how they all talk to each other. We include, wall work, paintings, sculpture, furniture, textiles and ceramics and the hang evolves naturally. It’s amazing how placing objects near paintings can make the work ’sing’ and it’s this relationship that interests us and it is this that is very much the essence of what Cavaliero Finn is about. This show gives us an opportunity to include a large and varied amount of work especially as the space is so large.
Aside from the artists in this show, who do you feel are the contemporary masters of the still life form?
There are almost too many to mention but, Cy Twombly, Gerhard Richter, Michael Craig-Martin, Damien Hirst, Ori Gersht, Gabriel Orozco, Marc Quinn and Jeff Koons come to mind.
If you had to hark back to past masters of the form, who would you say pioneered it?
Still life has long been associated with the Dutch and Flemish of the 17th Century but can be traced back to Spain at the end of the Renaissance with painter Juan Sanchez Cotan (1560-1627) whose earliest dated picture is from 1602. Juan Sánchez Cotán established the prototype of the Spanish still life, called a bodegón, composed mainly of vegetables. He painted simple fruits or vegetables, some hanging at different levels while others sit on a ledge or window – an idea which is quite 'contemporary' when you think about it. Cotan was interested in the relationships among objects and used light and shadow to great effect and was a major influence on the work of later Spanish painters.
What can this show teach us?
The Still Life genre in general can teach you many things, it can give you an insight into social commentary through the use of metaphor in the early days, right up to the present day in Hirst’s work. I guess for us, in this show, we think it can teach you to look at the world in a different way and find beauty in the everyday – in the light, colour, the gaps between things, shadows cast - beauty all around us.
BEAUTY IN THE EVERYDAY – Appreciating Still Life
Brixton East 1871 | 100 Barrington Road | London | SW9 7JF
Friday November 25th – 10.30 am – 6.00 pm, Saturday November 26th 10.30 am – 6.00pm & Sunday November 27th 10.30 am – 6.00pm
