Still Life with Chip Frier 1954

John Bratby made this still life painting, sometime in the last century, using oil paint. He's captured a table laden with objects in what feels like one furious swoop of looking, seeing, and painting. Bratby’s brushstrokes are thick, almost sculptural. The paint’s laid on with a kind of frenetic energy. Look at the way he renders light reflecting off the glass jars. He builds up layers of white and grey, capturing that gleam without smoothing things out. It's raw, like he's wrestling the image onto the canvas. What I love about the piece, and his work more generally, is how unafraid he is to just throw it all on there. It feels like he's saying, "Here's the world, messy and full of stuff," and he's not trying to pretty it up for anyone. I'm reminded of Paula Modersohn-Becker and her commitment to representing the world as she saw it, in all its unvarnished glory. Art is a conversation, and Bratby’s contribution is one that reminds us to embrace the chaos.