Dimensions: support: 512 x 612 x 18 mm
Copyright: © The estate of Adrian Stokes | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: Adrian Stokes's "Still Life," part of the Tate Collections, offers us a fascinating intersection of form and materiality. Editor: It's like a dream. Fading in and out, almost a memory of a still life, not quite real. Is it just me? Curator: The composition itself is fairly traditional, but the ethereal quality definitely pushes against conventional still life paintings. Consider how Stokes's interest in abstraction complicates our reading. Editor: Abstraction, yes, but it's also about light, isn't it? How light makes things almost disappear, just ghostly shapes. It's quite haunting, actually. Curator: Perhaps. The use of colour and the soft edges certainly give it a unique feel. I am left thinking about the cultural values assigned to domestic spaces, and how Stokes both upholds and challenges them. Editor: For me, it’s about the passing of time, the quiet beauty in the everyday, and how even simple objects hold layers of meaning.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/stokes-still-life-t07804
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Stokes graduated from Oxford in 1923 and published his first book two years later. In the following years he wrote many books and articles about modern art, and on the appreciation of Italian Renaissance art and architecture.In the 1930s he began to paint landscapes, still lifes and nudes as a practical extension of his criticism. His paintings are characterised by their broken brushwork and even tones. This painting is part of a group of eight works bequeathed to Tate by his friend and admirer, David Sylvester. Gallery label, September 2004
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