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Show '. llt Lake Tribune ENTERTAINMENT Tuesday, October 12, 1999 . Exhibition Encompasses Wide Range of Still Life BY MARTHA BRADLEY SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE Artists have always felt com?elled to paint the common objects )f their daily existence. In fact, ,ome of the earliest still lifes are ainted in frescoes on the walls of incient Roman ruins. Representing ordinary objects - food, dish='S, arrangements of fruit or vegeables - the images make permaen t the fleeting nature of :lay-to-day life. During the 16th century in Italy and Northern Europe, the still life ecame a popular genre of painting. Breathtakingly beautiful still lifes - brilliant bouquets, glistening drops of water poised recar$iously on the edges of leaves, or ladybugs crawling caually across a petal - became favored tricks to simulate the natural. Calculated compositions of objects lined walls of the homes of the wealthy and sophisticated in European society. The still life has played a role throughout the history of art. Its many variations reveal much about changing tastes and aesthetics, values and preferences. "A Selection of Still-Lifes From - the Collections of the Museum" includes 34 still lifes in the permanent collection of the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. In its breadth and variety it characterizes the collection its elf. The range is interesting and entertaining. Bonnie Sucec's "Untitled, 1994" gouache painting of the interior of Salt Lake City's New Yorker restaurant portrays a sweep of space that warps in an arc with a free and loose sketchy brushstroke. Equally important, pattern moves Y<fOSS the canvas and explains form and object. The fragility of Jerome Witkin's drawing "Hands and Plants, 1973" focuses on the implied relationship between the artist and his object. The still life here becomes an interplay between human form, the hand, and the delicate plant balanced carefully in the hand. Many of the still lifes in this show are nontraditional objects milk cartons and tulips in Paul Wonner's "Untitled" lithograph, Tab and Coke cans in Marianne Boers' "Tab" watercolor - focusing not on a single object but on the context in which they reside: the grocery-store shelf, a glimpse of the real beyond the calculation of the still life. Simone Simonian's "Chinese Market II," gelatin silverprint of fish sprawled on the counter of a market, defies the ordinary by the beauty of the medium. Similarly, Barbara Richard's "Guest House" - gelatin silverprint captures the impossible softness of a sunny porch where the texture of rattan, wood and the land that stretches behind them both blend and create a harmony themselves. For several years the museum has opened its permanent collection to a series of thematic exhibits to display art long in storage. As many as 17,000 art objects are part of the collection, and many never hang in gallery space. This type of show reveals the scope of the collection and gives the public the opportunity to enjoy it. ' A Selection of Still-Lifes from the Collections of the Museum, The Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Gallery 3; through Nov. 21. - - - I • Where to Look AUGUST 22 - NOVEMBER 21 , 1999 - - ' ' |
