The Shape of Things: Still Life in Britain, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK, 2024
The Shape of Things questions the idea that still life is a lesser genre, showing how important it is to artists and society. Featuring a ‘Who’s Who’ of Modern and Contemporary British artists, the exhibition digs into still life’s rich symbolism and how it’s pushed boundaries and new ideas. The exhibition shifts from 17th-century ‘vanitas’ paintings to post-impressionism to abstraction and from pop to conceptual art. It invites viewers to think about life’s challenges, such as love and grief, identity and the subconscious, life and death and plenty and waste. Today, these challenges also include biodiversity loss, the legacy of colonialism, and climate change. On display are a selection of works by modern and contemporary artists in Britain including Hurvin Anderson, Vanessa Bell, Edward Burra, Patrick Caulfield, Lucian Freud, Gluck, Duncan Grant, Richard Hamilton, Mona Hatoum, Jann Haworth, David Hockney, Lee Miller, Paul Nash, Ben Nicholson, William Nicholson, Katie Paterson, Eric Ravilious, Anwar Jalal Shemza, William Scott, Walter Sickert, Stanley Spencer, Edmund de Waal, Rachel Whiteread and Clare Woods. The exhibition looks at how these artists have used traditional art history to express the complexities of the human condition.