Still Life 

Editor: This "Still Life," possibly by Henri Matisse given the Fauvist brushstrokes and vibrant hues, presents us with a flower arrangement rendered in oil paint. There’s something wonderfully unrefined about the execution, almost clumsy, which makes the vibrant color all the more exciting. How would you unpack this, considering Matisse's practices? Curator: Let’s consider Matisse and his studio practice in material terms. Notice how the composition focuses not just on representation, but on the very *making* of a scene. Look at the thick application of paint. Doesn’t that itself become the subject? We see Matisse exploring the capabilities, the raw potential, of oil paint, its texture and coverage in building blocks of color. How do you see the tension between "high art" and more rudimentary craft playing out? Editor: I see that. There is something of an Arts and Crafts spirit here—a reverence for the material itself. It’s not trying to trick the eye into seeing hyperrealism, is it? It’s honest. The marks and their materiality are clear. Is that a commentary on industrial production, perhaps? Curator: Potentially. Certainly, Matisse participates in a modernist ethos questioning traditional modes of artistic production, turning our attention instead to the processes and materiality themselves. Where might you place the cultural and socio-economic role of the artist himself in that period, using his studio, the labour behind the image? Editor: The painting emphasizes a sort of self-sufficient, individual creativity—the artist working within a defined space, engaging with materials directly. Thinking of labor, it's almost an antidote to mass production. Something truly "hand-made". Curator: Exactly! It emphasizes the physical process of creation. Seeing it through this lens allows us to consider what other kinds of creative acts can be valued as such and why. I will never look at a ‘simple’ still life in quite the same way. Editor: Nor will I! Thinking about materiality truly opens it up.