Still Life with Blue Gloves 1968

Curator: This is Sir William Gillies' "Still Life with Blue Gloves," part of the Tate collection. The dimensions of its support are roughly 654 by 914 millimeters. Editor: My first thought? These objects feel so...deliberately placed, almost like characters in a play. The blue gloves are a total game-changer. Curator: Absolutely, the gloves. They bring such a modern, utilitarian element to what otherwise might be a very traditional still life arrangement of pottery. Editor: And consider the labour involved – the hands that wore those gloves, the hands that shaped the pots. It challenges our preconceptions. Curator: It is a quiet meditation on domesticity, really, isn't it? Mundane objects elevated through Gillies's gentle, almost dreamlike application of watercolor. Editor: The painting transforms everyday objects and their social context into something intriguing. Curator: It's a simple moment, made somehow epic by the artist's vision. Editor: The materiality of these things, and the artist's hand—it all makes you think.