Two Bottles 

Dan Graziano painted "Two Bottles" with oil on canvas, a medium historically associated with the old masters. Still life painting has a long history. The Dutch masters took great pride in painting everyday objects, and we can also think of Cezanne's careful arrangements of fruit. In the United States today, where Graziano makes his art, paintings of domestic objects are not seen as the most progressive form of art. There has been pressure from institutions for artists to think big, and engage with global issues in obvious ways. But it could be argued that paintings like this one actually function as a quiet act of resistance, a pushback against institutional demand for a certain kind of art. Historians can help us understand an artwork by drawing on a wide range of research materials from the artist’s time, and by considering the role of art institutions and public funding in shaping artistic production.