Still Life with a Clock 

Adalbert Erdeli painted this vivid still life, with what appears to be oil on canvas, sometime in the first half of the 20th century. Erdeli’s work is rooted in the cultural landscape of interwar Eastern Europe. His still life, with its clock and flowers, echoes the artistic exploration of temporality, characteristic of its age. Look closely at the symbolic objects and their arrangement. They are placed on what looks like a hastily laid-out table in front of a melancholic background. It seems to convey a sense of uncertainty and change which encapsulates a critical reflection on the social and political upheavals in the region during this period. As art historians, to better understand the socio-political context of this painting, we might look into the history of artistic movements in interwar Ukraine. In doing so, we could discover how Erdeli responded to the cultural shifts that impacted artists throughout the region.