Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Still-life in art'

My individual journey as an artist has allowed me to develop in what can be considered two societal extremes; growing up in condensed suburban Southern California to living in rural mid-American Iowa. This change in settings caused me to question how the environment one grows up in influences his cultural and social perspective. Within this environment exists a support structure of family, friends, and community who also play a large role in how an individual's perception develops, including concepts of honesty, integrity, and ethics- but to what extent? This question of how different circumstances and interactions define our beliefs and values is the heart of my artistic practice.

The research question under investigation is: Working within the genre of still life, how can my current work represent a ‘radical revision’ of selected aspects of this traditional genre? The issues and art historical knowledge informing the creation of my contemporary still lifes is the central subject of this project – involving a selfeffacing, metacognitive process of ‘radical revisionism’ (see Butler, 2005), reflecting contemporary practices among artists and art historians alike. The ancient genre of still life, stemming from Pompeian frescoes and mosaics to the current day, will be exposed to an openly subjective historical narrative, compelled in directions associated with the creation of my own artwork. My own processes of art making will likewise be questioned in terms of the way they might be historically understood against the scholarship of art historians and critics, and where they may find a place within the broad intellectual and academic framework under construction by a range of international artists and art historians. The contribution to be made to new knowledge will by the nature of the subject under investigation and result in an analysis of the continual interaction of making and theorising about art. New theoretical knowledge linked to the creation of my own artworks will be partially constructed through and by the artwork, so that the completed artworks and their making are theorised themselves (Macleod and Holdridge, 2006: 2) against a backdrop of considerable existing writings on the origins, contexts and meanings of still life. The contemporary theorising of Rex Butler (2005) on ‘radical revisionism’ will be important to this endeavour. Butler (2005:9) summarises the difficulties and preferences of the contemporary art historian in bringing to bear present knowledge and values to any study of the past, the subject of an enduring debate in historiography: It is a history, therefore, that sees the artists of the past speaking across what we might like to call ‘time-separated’ areas to contemporary issues. In other words – and we should try to remain aware of just what is so extraordinary about this – it is a history that conceives of the artists of the past as though they were already post-modernists, already reacting in their work to the same concerns that artists of today do. It is a theoretical position which is well-suited to the present study because Butler (2005) seeks to displace a straightforward dichotomy between analysing objects, people or actions on their own past terms and their work and behaviour in relation to contemporary reference points. It is an analytical stance which automatically dismisses claims for an ‘impartial’, ‘objective’ or ‘singular’ history and locates the interpreter as a person who is wilfully intervening in the recasting of the motives and meanings linked to objects, people and actions. The notion of ‘radical revisionism’ will be applied to an historical account of members of the genre of still life as well as to the developmental processes of my own artworks. The work of a range of contemporary artists who have sought to rejuvenate the language and conventions of still life will be examined, followed by the discussion of my own work. Any emerging divide in operation between theory and practice will be viewed as mutable. Central to the written research output was the creation of a major body of works on paper and paintings, and this research includes an analysis of the deliberations involved in the development of my artworks. The works on paper and paintings reveal the application of relatively instinctual artistic decisionmaking processes in conjunction with more reflective theoretical and art-historical considerations. Other mediums such as video or installation could equally have been used by me (or preferred by other artists) in subsequent related investigations to explore similar concerns. Likewise, genres other than still life could be viewed by others as suitable vehicles for reflecting on the interaction between theorising and art making against the long backdrop of an historical genre.
Thesis (Professional Doctorate)
Doctor of Visual Arts (DVA)
Queensland College of Art
Queensland College of Art
Full Text

This thesis aims to conduct a study of battle jackets using painting as a recording and analytical tool. A battle jacket is a customised garment worn in heavy metal subcultures that features decorative patches, band insignia, studs and other embellishments. Battle jackets are significant in the expression of subcultural identity for those that wear them, and constitute a global phenomenon dating back at least to the 1970s. The art practice juxtaposes and re-contextualises cultural artefacts in order to explore the narratives and traditions that they are a part of. As such, the work is situated within the genre of contemporary still life and appropriative painting. The paintings presented with the written thesis document a series of jackets and creatively explore the jacket form and related imagery. The study uses a number of interrelated critical perspectives to explore the meaning and significance of the jackets. Intertextual approaches explore the relationship of the jackets to other cultural forms. David Muggleton’s ‘distinctive individuality’ and Sarah Thornton’s ‘subcultural capital’ are used to emphasise the importance of jacket making practices for expressions of personal and corporate subcultural identity. Italo Calvino’s use of postmodern semiotic structures gives a tool for placing battle jacket practice within a shifting network of meanings, whilst Richard Sennett’s‘material consciousness’ helps to understand the importance of DIY making practices used by fans. The project refers extensively to a series of interviews conducted with battle jacket makers between 2014 and 2016. Recent art historical studies of still life painting have used a materialist critique of historic works to demonstrate the uniqueness of painting as a method of analysis. The context for my practice involves historical references such as seventeenth century Dutch still life painting. The work of contemporary artists who are exploring the themes and imagery of extreme metal music is also reviewed.

"The Still Life" explores debates over single manhood in the culture of the nineteenth-century United States. Until recently, the "bachelor" was less an identifiable social type than a battleground for discourses of privacy and intimacy, sympathy and sentiment, and labor and leisure. Representations of the bachelor tended to excite readers' concerns about the relationships among emotion, public behavior, and intellectual prowess. Concentrating on constructions of the bachelor within specific discursive arenas, this dissertation examines "bachelorhood" as a way culture organized a wide range of ideologies and experiences. Though the bachelor's particular significance faded in the twentieth century, a conceptual roadblock dramatized by the figure remains: the notion that an emotionally rewarding family life and the production of works of public significance are fundamentally at odds.;The Introduction traces the evolution of the notion of "bachelor" from European religious, martial, and academic origins to its United States version. Distinguishing "bachelorhood" from "single manhood," it sets the terms of inquiry within the theoretical context of cultural studies of masculinity.;The first chapter explores an apparent paradox: while much American writing of the early nineteenth century declared the single male a dangerous figure, Washington Irving's use of the bachelor as narrator evoked a quite different response. as a sentimental male narrator, Irving's bachelor participated in the construction of sympathy (crucial to post-Revolution politics) by observing the family and re-uniting alienated members of the body politic.;Chapter Two moves this discussion into the writings of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. Hawthorne's The Blithedale Romance and Melville's Pierre suggest a very different relationship between manhood and the domestic than Irving's model, one that criticized domesticity. Subverting the language of domestic spheres, these stories suggest that intimacy and privacy could be at odds.;The final chapter argues that we see competitive individual masculinity as a complex product of a shared domestic life. It focuses on fin-de-siecle still life paintings by William Harnett and John Peto that depicted men's paraphernalia. These paintings and the contemporary popular literature of masculine domesticity suggest that the new urban bachelor culture was a companionate one, forged in shared living spaces.

Viewed from odd angles, the ordinary looks new and the commonplace becomes unusual. The purpose of my creative project, Re-envisionina the Ordinary: A Study of Vantage Points in Painting, was to use unusual vantage points and multiple viewpoints as compositional devices to show familiar household scenes and objects in a new way. Analysis of artworks and writings by realist painters such as Edgar Degas, Paul Cezanne and Pierre Bonnard helped me learn how each of these artists used unusual or multiple viewpoints While researching these artists, I began to understand why space is one of the fundamental issues of art. I found that, as an artist, I cannot use vantage points and viewpoints without considering the larger issue of space.Artists throughout time have wrestled with the question: how does one represent three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface? By presenting different treatments of space, I showed how various artists have answered the question. Leonardo da Vinci solved the problem using linear perspective. Edgar Degas and Pierre Bonnard answered the question usingoriental space and unusual or multiple viewpoints. Paul Cezanne's solution was a new system of unified space.Contemporary artists provide other answers to the question of space. Rene Magritte used the illusionary devices of linear perspective to paint his surreal world. Philip Pearlstein returned to Degas' and Cezannes' concept of space to emphasize both the three-dimensionality of the figures and the twodimensionality of the picture plane. David Hockney found his solution in the multiple viewpoints of cubism.My creative project is my answer to the question. I integrated unusual vantage points, and multiple viewpoints to create ten paintings with unified space. I used some conventions of linear perspective to show depth. For example, sizes and details in my paintings diminish with distance. I then contradicted the three-dimensionality by using some conventions of oriental space that flatten the picture plane: oblique perspective, overlapping and positioning an object next to the front surface.
Department of Art

This work focuses on the cross-section between classic still-life art and complex personal issues. It uses traditional and nontraditional still life photography to tell individual vignettes about my life. I explore unresolved issues, which offer subtle suggestion of an experiential narrative. All of the backgrounds and objects included are intentional and represent specific places, people, and events. I allow the viewer to bring their own experiences to the photographs, by not giving them specifics of my stories. I used this work as a way for me to move past these experiences and my hope is that they might also help others. I have created beauty from my dwelling.

The still life genre has been, and arguably still is, regarded as the lowest form of painting in Western fine art history. The absence of the human figure in still life painting means that the artist does not require knowledge of either human anatomy or history for the production of the work. Given seventeenth century female painters' exclusion from the academies where anatomy was taught, it was thus a genre regarded as appropriate for female painters in Europe prior to the nineteenth century. Such dictates of propriety were indicative of gender constructs that relegated women to the private sphere of society and the domestic environment. As an accompaniment to my Masters in Fine Art exhibition titled Masters, Master, Masturbate (A master's debate), this text explores what still life painting may reveal about the relationship between the home, the body and the self in the present day. Produced from my position as a contemporary, white, female painter of Dutch descent raised within an Afrikaner culture in the context of South Africa, I suggest that a critical reconsideration of this apparently constrictive genre offers potentially liberating perspectives of gender constructs and the female painter.

a) Description of Studio Work My work as presented for examination consists of an installation comprising photographic and Video elements, exhibited at Sydney College of the Arts, December 6-17 2005. b) Abstract of Research Paper/ Dissertation My research addresses the construction of meaning in artistic texts. This paper explores the structural basis of the various narrative and aesthetic devices used by artists to simultaneously articulate and mystify works, and signposts the pretexts established by artists to enable artistic production. My research contends that meaning resides in the dialectical space between rational relations and irresoluble sequences, and in the audience’s construction of an idea of purposefulness in the reading of a text. It contends that conventionality is essential to meaning (if only to provide a framework for asserting deviance), and that meaning is always subject to revision. My research contends that art is not only an aesthetic and discursive activity, but also a kind of game where the rules keep changing.

This exegesis is an exploration of meditative process in painting and drawing and accompanies an exhibition of paintings and large drawings called What Lies Beneath. The text contains several passages, called "meditations," which accompany the themes approached in the chapters and give insight into the thoughts and practices of the artist. The methodology involves the examination of the evidence of the work produced by selected artists, looking at the words of artists in notebooks, diaries and interviews and surveying a small number of local contemporary artists. The text opens up the possibilities of drapery and garments and of still life as paths to meditative practice in painting and drawing. The qualities that characterize meditative process/practice, derived from my observations, are categorized. Some of the strengths of these processes are revealed through the examination of the work of artists, both contemporary and historical. The work of Vermeer, Sanchez Cotan, Francisco Zurbaran and contemporary artists Anne Judell, Simon Cooper, Jude Rae, Alison Watt and Eva Hesse highlight different aspects of the meditative process in painting and drawing. The art works in the exhibition are documented and bring out the meditative processes that have contributed to their creation, including the use and meaning of the subject (drapery and the garment as a form of still life).

The seventeenth century was an incredibly fascinating time for art in England developmentally, especially because most of the artists that were receiving the commissions from English patrons and creating the art weren’t English, they were Dutch. Over this one hundred year period scores of Dutch artists migrated over from the Dutch Republic and showed England this Golden Age of painting that had established Dutch artists back in the Netherlands as pioneers in their line of work. In studies of Anglo-Dutch art, portraiture is a genre that has been widely researched; Peter Lely (a Dutch-born portraitist) is one of many widely acclaimed artists of this genre; comparative to many of the artworks and artists chosen for this research. Generally Anglo-Dutch relations, politically, economically, religiously and of course culturally there was, during the seventeenth century, so much going on between these two nations. Did this intense ever-changing relationship have an impact on that the other ‘low’ genres of art that was produced throughout this century? This research involves understanding and thinking about the impact of the cultural exchange that took place between England and the Netherlands in the seventeenth century on ‘low’ art – marine, landscape and still life painting. This research entails thinking about the origins of these genres as well as looking at individual paintings on a detailed basis and understanding how this cultural interchange manifests and translates itself through visual motifs – objects (large and small), stylistic characteristics and theme of the painting. Various themes and interpretations - in particular iconography and iconology, descriptive versus narrative art and national identity - have been explored and considered in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the literature that already exists for this art in an effort to consider something new but to also interpret the paintings in a different way – this research has considered these paintings through the visual elements and has explained the cultural significance they provide.

The research project uses still life as a means of exploring current events of violence and oppression. These events are represented through juxtaposing plastic toys with organic objects. The toys include a range of popular generic toys such as army men, cowboys and Indians and toy soldiers. The organic objects were selected for their relationship to the specific event being represented. The toys and organic objects were positioned to create interesting and logical compositions. Themes of the series include opposing objects and ideas pitched against each other such as plastic/organic, perpetrator/victim, violence/peacefulness and destruction/sustenance. Within each work the plastic toys take on the demeanor of the tyrant(s), whereas the organic objects adopt the role of the victim(s). The research project uses these themes to convey the message that violence is both a barbaric way of dealing with conflict and a senseless form of self-expression. I have used symbols and metaphors to build a visual language. For the language to be translated accurately a great deal of research has taken place into the appropriate still life objects for each work. Each work incorporates metaphors and or symbols for both the oppressor and victim within the event being represented. The studio outcome of this research project, Silent Bang, includes a series of highly detailed finished paintings of various scales. Silent Bang as a body of work is colourful and aims to be aesthetically pleasing in addition to conveying a powerful message that incites interpretation.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how work by Swedish artist Ylva Ogland (born in 1974) function as an eye-opener for the social marginalisation of people identified with homosexuality, prostitution and drug addiction. Although highly present in reality, these phenomena were historically, and are still today, hidden from view in public discourse. I have focused on the installations Rapture and Silence and Things Seen, and the still-life painting called Xenia. I argue that these artworks carefully represent the above-mentioned marginalised groups, by way of references to comparable motives in the history of art, from neoclassicism in France, to realism and romanticism.

This thesis rediscovers the Swedish painter Märta Rudbeck (1882–1933). During her lifetime she was an esteemed composer of flower still lifes and portraits. Her forgotten heritage follows those of other female artists, whose legacies are long forgotten. By retracing her life through archives and newspaper articles, a picture of her upbringing, education, career and network affiliations emerges. By using the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieus field theory, the aim of the thesis is to analyse the social, educational, cultural and economic aspects that affected Märta Rudbeck’s life, and how this was manifested in her art. The strategies Märta Rudbeck encompassed, are highlighted in the analysis. She chose to exhibit her work with a variety of associations and also took commissions for portraits and copies of older works of art. The analysis also reveals how she followed in her mother’s footsteps and embraced female networks to further her career. Furthermore, the thesis uncovers how her heritage, social class and upbringing most likely influenced her choice of genre, which in turn has prevented her from staying relevant since her untimely death in the early 1930’s. The thesis finally discloses how Märta Rudbeck’s artistry is once again made relevant, through a major museum acquisition as well as an exhibition at one of the greater art institutions in Sweden.

L’école romaine et l’école napolitaine de nature morte comptent au XVIIe siècle parmi les plus importantes dans la peinture européenne. Pendant tout le Seicento, elles sont restées étroitement liées, en multipliant les tableaux de fleurs, fruits, légumes, poissons, gibiers, sous-bois.... La thèse étudie l’évolution de ce genre à Rome et à Naples et les resitue dans le vaste tissu des échanges culturels et stylistiques entre ces deux capitales. Elle analyse la place de la nature morte dans le marché de l’art (circulation, marchands, prix, estimations) et dans les collections. Le goût de mécènes variés pour ces tableaux est étudié. Des comparaisons formelles entre les œuvres de différents peintres, comme Mario dei Fiori et Paolo Porpora, Michelangelo Cerquozzi et Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo ou Giovanni Battista Recco et Gian Domenico Valentino sont effectuées. On explique également le rôle d’Abraham Brueghel, Andrea Bonanni, Alessandro dei Pesci, et Andrea Belvedere
The Roman and the Neapolitan school of still-life painting are in 17th Century among the most important in Europe. During the whole Seicento, these two schools are closely tied and produced a large amount of paintings of flowers, fruits, vegetables, fishes, game, woodland Scenes (sottoboschi)… This PhD analyses the evolution of still-life painting in Rome and in Naples and places it in the numerous stylistic and cultural exchanges between these two capitals. The place of still-life painting in the art market (circulation of works, merchants, prices, appraisals) and in the collections is studied. The Patrons’ taste for these pictures is examined. We carry out stylistics comparisons between works by Mario dei Fiori and Paolo Porpora, Michelangelo Cerquozzi and Giovanni Battista Ruoppolo or Giovanni Battista Recco and Gian Domenico Valentino. We also investigate the role of Abraham Brueghel, Andrea Bonanni, Alessandro dei Pesci and Andrea Belvedere

The Wild Beasts springs from my desire to thank my ever-expanding queer chosen family and mentors for their strength. Working through the often violent and othering aspects of the lens and photographic histories I create floral portraits responding to each person’s being and our relationship. Using the 19th century, 8x10 large format view camera—the same used by colonialists and ethnographers to “capture” the divinity of Nature—I erect each as a traditional still life studio setup at the threshold between the natural world and that constructed by humans. These environments speak both to the character of each friend and also to the use of Nature against queer people in most legal systems across the planet. We are deemed unnatural and made criminals through inequitable semantics. The 8x10 negative becomes a portrait, a darkroom contact print that is gifted to each of The Wild Beasts, an intimate artifact of my gratitude. At these borders I lash at the histories of oppression, remaking these lineages and tools into spaces for empathy, tenderness, and love.

The objective of my research is to develop a body of work for exhibition based on an examination of the ways that corporate space, as exemplified by the foyers and conference rooms of contemporary corporate offices, reflect societal anxieties about wealth and power. These works will draw on the history of painting, with particular reference to 17th century Dutch still life painting, as a framework within which to conduct the exploration of contemporary space. This will be done by applying or interpreting the principles, motifs and techniques used in that period in the visual representation of the connection between wealth and decadence and western culture's ambiguous attitude towards the creation and accumulation of wealth. Boardrooms, corporate foyers and office interiors have developed into instantly recognisable types of space with a particular atmosphere, typified by large empty space and the use of materials such as marble and granite and surfaces with reflective finishes.. These spaces are often open to the public, but the intention is for people to be impressed by the wealth and power of the occupants, an idea initially perfected in Ancient Rome. The impression of wealth and power created in these spaces is balanced against a need to demonstrate prudence and restraint - the corporations need to avoid creating an impression of extravagance or wastefulness. The emergence of the genre still life painting in the Netherlands during the 17th century provides useful source material for their representations of restrained prosperity as well as the moral content related to the virtues of modesty and the transience of material life and wealth. The illusory space in the church interiors of Saenredam and de Witte, with their sense of expansive space and light, are echoed in the real space of contemporary corporate foyers and provide a basis for considering the format, composition and modes of representation of constructed space.

In lowland river systems, in-channel, slow-flowing or still-water areas (still-water patches, SWPs) are considered to be important habitats for many organisms, particularly the early-life stages of fish and shrimp. However, the distribution of the early life-stages of fish and shrimp among these habitats appears to be very patchy and studies suggest that the quality and diversity of microhabitat conditions within SWPs and the accessibility of SWPs to spawning adults and dispersing young may be important determinants of their suitability as nursery habitat. The aims of this thesis were to examine the utilisation of still-water patches by fish and shrimp in a lowland river in relation to habitat suitability and accessibility, with particular emphasis on early-life stages. To determine the factors influencing habitat selection among SWPs, the environmental variability in SWP habitat, and both the distribution and the movement patterns of fish and shrimp, were examined in the Broken River, a lowland river in south-eastern Australia. SWP habitat was found to be highly spatially and temporally variable in the Broken River. SWPs differed in relation to permanence, accessibility and microhabitat variables, and all life-stages of fish and shrimp were found to be significantly spatially aggregated among SWPs. This suggests that individual SWPs may differ in their suitability as habitat, and/or in their accessibility to dispersing organisms and indicates either differential rates of retention, movement into SWPs, spawning effort or survival among SWPs for these organisms. Significant associations were found for all species and life-stages in relation to the microhabitat characteristics of SWPs. The two introduced species, carp and gambusia, were found to have fewer associations, which suggests that these species are habitat generalists. Cover and SWP morphology variables were shown to be important for all native species. Significant, positive associations were found for most species and life-stages with large, deep, SWPs containing instream cover, however, the extent of cover preferred was variable. It was hypothesised that large, deep SWPs that contain instream cover are more environmentally stable and provide better foraging efficiency and reduced competition for space, whilst also providing refuge from predators and, that they may be easier to locate than smaller patches. Specific associations with microhabitat variables differed among all species and life-stages, and this was attributed to differences in diet and predation rates. Consequently, generalised microhabitat relationships for particular life-stages or species could not be identified and the results from this thesis suggest that a diversity of microhabitat conditions are required to meet the differing requirements of various life-stages and species. Significant associations were also found for most groups in relation to the accessibility characteristics of SWPs, indicating that the ability of individuals to access SWPs is an important factor in determining their distribution among SWPs. This further suggests that movement is an important factor in the distribution pattern of fish and shrimp among SWPs. Significant associations were found for most groups in relation to patch isolation, adjacent hydraulic habitat and entrance conditions, indicating that landscape composition and configuration as well as boundary conditions may be important determinants of organisms being able to locate suitable patches. Associations with accessibility variables differed among species and life-stages, and may be attributable to differences in movement capabilities. Field manipulations of instream cover and entrance depth were conducted to further examine the habitat associations found. The results confirmed a positive relationship between instream cover and fish and shrimp abundances. No species, however, responded consistently to the manipulation of entrance depths, and this was attributed to water level rises throughout the experiment and/or the correlation of entrance depth with SWP depth. However, the results from the field manipulations suggested that deeper habitats are able to be exploited by small-bodied adults and larvae when significant levels of instream cover are also available as refuge from predation. In order to confirm the importance of movement in the selection of SWP habitat by fish and shrimp, the movement patterns of fish and shrimp into and out of SWPs were investigated. Whilst the results from this aspect of the study were inconclusive for fish, the results for shrimp confirmed that adults and larvae moved routinely into and out of SWPs. However, for all shrimp species, movement appeared to be limited to a certain period of larval development, indicating that SWP quality and stability may be more important at particular stages of development than others. The results of this thesis have demonstrated the importance of SWP quality and stability for fish and shrimp in the Broken River and have shown that habitat preferences vary among individual species and life-stages. Consequently, in order to manage for multiple species and life-stages, consideration must be given not only to the availability of SWPs, but also to their stability over time and to the availability of a diverse range of microhabitats. In addition, consideration must also be given to the accessibility of SWPs and this will require a greater knowledge of the specific spawning and dispersal requirements of the organisms which utilise these patches, in combination with a greater understanding of the impacts of flow modification on riverine landscape composition and configuration.

In this practice-led research project I have explored the genre of still-life painting, with a focus on material culture. I came to the project with a background as a still-life painter and economist. I was curious about the relationship between the two activities, and speculated that an artist’s approach to still-life painting might reflect the overall economic circumstances of the times. If so, how might a disruptive change to those circumstances generate changes in the way paintings were made? And how could material culture – the objects that help define, interpret and understand the world we live in – be used to represent economic conditions? In the light of questions such as these, the objective for my project was to investigate how I could effectively explore and model material culture through my studio-based painting, and do so within the context of current economic conditions and contemporary painting culture. The accompanying exegesis tracks the project. It began with an exploration of seventeenth-century Dutch still-life painting. I drew on historical analysis of the period to explore how the traditions of the still life could be adapted to contemporary painting. An economic model for analysing convention and innovation in the still-life genre was developed using evidence from this period. As the project developed, the limitations of this approach become increasingly apparent. This led to a reassessment of my approach. I reviewed the balance between objective analysis and subjective responses to economic conditions through my painting. Contemporary artistic influences were incorporated, including North American still-life painting from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, contemporary painting from Asia and South America, and the work of Australian still-life artists. This led to a re-conception of the ways a still-life painting practice could constitute a distinctive, creative engagement with material culture.

This research investigates how simple domestic objects can be employed as visual metaphors for vulnerability, entrapment and unfulfilled expectations experienced by many women who take on primary domestic roles. In its use of domestic objects as visual metaphors, the project locates itself within the context of the still life genre but at the same time seeks to re-interpret this tradition in a way which makes it relevant to contemporary concerns. The exegesis contextualises the project through discussion of what the domestic object traditionally symbolised in the history of Western art, specifically looking at the still life and narrative genre painting which used the domestic object to deliver moralising and ideological messages. The discussion then focuses, on artists who in the twentieth century re-deployed domestic objects in other ways, wresting them from their traditional meanings. Of particular relevance to the project is how artists moved away from painterly depictions of domestic objects to assimilating the ephemera of daily life into their work and also how they have invested them with meanings which challenge the traditional concept of home as a safe and nurturing environment. In this regard, the artists who have been most relevant to the project have been feminist artists such as Donna Marcus, Vivienne Binns, Helen Fuller, Judy Chicago, Faith Ringgold, Miriam Schapiro and Louise Bourgeois. These artists reference domestic objects as an appropriate visual vehicle to tell their stories, seek equality and reconcile their identities as both women and artists. The outcomes of studio-based investigations are encapsulated in a suite of mixed media artworks that explore different ways of engaging with domestic objects. The materials include paper and glass to reference vulnerability and fragility, while all the objects have been made using recycled materials and collage to invoke memory of a lived experience. Everyday acts of sewing and patchwork are employed to parallel the tedium, repetition and the entrapment of domestic obligations. The use of symbolism and metaphor connect my work to the historic tradition of still life; the use of found objects, materials and process connect it to the many conceptual and material changes that have affected the genre over the last one hundred years. Whilst the project acknowledges that the still life does not hold the same cultural importance that it once had, it does, however, suggest that this tradition can be re-interpreted and re-worked to express current day concerns, particularly those pertaining to the experience of women and the domestic sphere. As such, it builds on the works of feminist artists such as Chicago and Schapiro but, at the same time, goes beyond their concerns of celebrating the female crafts.

This diploma thesis treats and follows the still life in the conceptual interpretation of some selected authors in the second half of the 20th and at the beginning of the 21st century. The work has been divided into the theoretical and the practical part. The theoretical part deals with the conceptual art, its evolution, theory and its representatives. It further follows the evolution of the still life concerning mainly 20-century´s still lives and three-dimensional still lives. The practical part is made by sketch cycles, photomontages and the final art conceptual project. The work documentation is a part fo this work.

In my dissertation I propose that the detailed representation of food and eating in seventeenth-century Spanish art and literature has a double purpose: to reaffirm a state of well-being in Spain, and to show a critical position, because artistic creations emphasize those subjects who, because of social status or cultural background, do not share such benefits. This double purpose explains why literature and painting stress the distance between foodstuffs and consumers, turning food into a commodity that cannot be consumed directly, but through its representation and value. Cervantes's writing is invoked because, especially in Don Quixote, readers can see how the protagonist rejects food for the sake of achieving higher chivalric values, while his companion, Sancho Panza, faces the opposite problem: having food at hand and not being able to enjoy it, especially when he achieves his dream of ruling an island. The principle is similar in genre painting: food is consumed out of the picture in still lifes, or out of the hands of the represented characters in kitchen scenes, for they are depicted cooking for others. Because of the distance between product and consumer, foodstuffs indicate how precedence and authority are established and reproduced in society. In artistic representations, these apparently unchangeable principles are mimicked by the lower classes and used to establish parallel systems of authority such as the guild of thieves who are presented around a table in a scene of Cervantes's exemplary novel "Rinconete and Cortadillo." Another problem to which the representation of foodstuffs responds is the inclusion of New Christians from different origins. In a counterpoint with the scenes in which precedence is discussed, and frequently through similar aesthetic structures, Cervantes and his contemporaries create scenes where the Christian principle of sharing food and drinking wine together is the model of inclusion that dissolves distinctions between Old and New Christians. I argue that this alternative project of community can be related to the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain, decreed in 1609, because this event made many subjects interrogate themselves about their own status and inclusion. An artistic model of response to these interrogations about belonging is the figure of the roadside meal, which appears as the main motif of a meal shared by Sancho and a self-proclaimed Christian Morisco in the second part of Don Quixote, and reappears in a painting by Diego de Velázquez, which presents in the foreground a dark-skinned servant working in a kitchen, and in the background another roadside meal: the Supper at Emmaus. Both in literature and painting the way of preparing meals, eating and drinking creates ties, establishes a different principle of belonging, and promotes unity. In this alternative model characters are recognized as subjects of the kingdom as long as they eat and drink the way Christians do. Even though this model still leads to a single Christian kingdom, paintings and writings suggest a different form of cohesion, in which subjects are considered equal and recognize each other because of their participation.

Dissertation

The aim of this thesis is to clarify the concept of still life, outlining its development in the context of art from antiquity to the present. The work will focus select content for specification and formal transformations of still life with the possibility of using the outline of educational potential for the practice of art education in elementary schools. This work includes theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part deals with the history, basic principles and techniques of still life in art and his world and Czech officials. Practical application includes a realistic still life theme in art lessons and its subsequent possibilities.

Pour respecter les droits d’auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse a été dépouillée des documents visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.
Pendant la période coloniale, le grand sujet de la nature fut différemment instrumentalisé selon les intérêts particuliers des secteurs distincts de la société coloniale péruvienne. Fondamentale comme outil d'évangélisation, mais surtout comme espace de canalisation de la religiosité et de la spiritualité coloniale, la nature a su se manifester de manière diverse dans la production artistique de la vice-royauté du Pérou. Dans cette thèse, nous nous penchons sur le phénomène de la représentation de la nature dans la peinture andine coloniale, en nous concentrant en particulier sur la région occupée actuellement par le Pérou et la Bolivie, et sur une périodisation qui comprend principalement les XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Ce travail cherche à approfondir une problématique qui a été majoritairement oubliée ou sous-estimée par le discours critique de l’histoire de l’art de la période coloniale. Nous aborderons cette problématique à partir de différentes perspectives. Cependant, l'aspect religieux semble l’élément fondamental pour expliquer les principaux enjeux derrière ce geste pictural. La peinture de la nature et de l'espace fut représentative des valeurs et des fondements spirituels de la religiosité coloniale. Les andins ont pensé la nature comme un moyen de visualiser des expériences métaphysiques profondes, de repenser les identités religieuses et d’accorder aux images des pouvoirs magico-religieux qui s’avéraient essentiels pour le bien-être de différentes communautés. Bien que l’étude des rapports religieux soit indispensable pour élucider cette structure symbolique complexe, tant pour la peinture de paysage (comme unité organique), que pour la représentation des éléments individuels, la représentation de la nature a révélé, dans bien d'autres cas, des préoccupations concrètes directement liées aux circonstances, autant politique qu’ historique, de la société coloniale, en s’adaptant aux changements constants d’un espace et d’une société en transformation. Loin d'être uniquement soumis à l'exercice décoratif, ou dans le cas de la peinture religieuse, de remplir la fonction de contexte pictural, les peintres coloniaux ont valorisé cet élément en l'abordant comme un objet individuel, chargé de pouvoir symbolique et capable de transmettre des messages et de produire des discours, toujours en lien avec les préoccupations des différents secteurs de la société coloniale.
In the colonial period, the great subject matter of nature was instrumentalized by different sectors of Peruvian vice regal society. Essentially as an evangelization tool, but also as a space where colonial religiosity was manifested, the representation of nature was interpreted in different ways by artists and consumers of vice regal paintings. In this dissertation, we analyze the representation of nature in colonial Andean painting, focusing especially on the Central Andean region (currently covered by Peru and Bolivia) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This work seeks to move forward on an issue that has been largely underestimated by critical discourse of art history regarding the Latin American colonial period. We will discuss this problem from different perspectives. However, the religious aspect seems to be above all a fundamental element to explain the key issues behind this pictorial manner. The representation of nature was consistent with spiritual values that forged colonial religiosity. Andean people considered nature as a way to visualize deep metaphysical experiences by rethinking religious identities and granting to the images magical-religious powers essential for the well-being of communities. Beyond the religious aspect, we focus on the analysis of other consequences and interests that are related to the different forms of representation of territories and elements of nature, allowing different social groups to assert their ideological, political and cultural positions. The representation of nature and space in colonial painting was never a simple decorative object, nor, in the case of religious painting, did it fulfil the role of scenographic framework and background to pictorial stories. The colonial painters treated this element with particular concern, conceding it special value and narrative powers, according to different preoccupations in colonial society.

Le tableau de Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay intitulé Vase d’or, fleurs et buste de Louis XIV est le morceau de réception que le peintre a présenté à l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture en 1687. Malheureusement peu étudié, ce tableau n’en comporte pas moins trois problématiques très intéressantes. Tout d’abord, il rassemble trois genres de peinture dans une seule composition : la nature morte, le portrait et la peinture d’histoire, illustrés respectivement par les fleurs, le buste du roi et la pièce d’armure. L’association de ces trois genres dans un tableau de nature morte est peu commune dans la peinture française du 17e siècle. Il est donc nécessaire de vérifier s’il existe un lien entre les fleurs, l’image de Louis XIV et l’armure. Ensuite, le contraste entre la polychromie des fleurs et la monochromie de la sculpture et de l’ameublement est frappante ; il est possible de lier ce contraste au phénomène des débats entre le dessin et la couleur de l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture à la deuxième moitié du 17e siècle. D’ailleurs, les fleurs, qui n’étaient pas le sujet central dans le programme original de Le Brun, deviennent le sujet principal du tableau et occupent une place plus importante que le buste de Louis XIV. Cette modification n’a cependant pas choqué les juges de l’Académie puisque la toile a été acceptée sans contestation. Elle amène donc à s’interroger sur la hiérarchie des genres de peinture qui est la doctrine officielle de l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture de l’époque. Le noyau de la recherche consiste à vérifier si les fleurs n’occupent qu’une simple fonction décorative ou si elles peuvent être associées à des symboles. Notre recherche examine d’abord l’utilisation des symboles floraux dans la culture française du 17e siècle. Par la suite, elle étudie cette utilisation dans le domaine politique, à savoir que les fleurs pourraient être liées à la louange de Louis XIV. Enfin, elle analyse les domaines artistiques et esthétiques, c’est-à-dire la façon dont le tableau reflète, par l’utilisation des symboles floraux, l’évolution des théories de l’art, la hiérarchie des genres de peinture et les débats du dessin et de la couleur, en France, durant la deuxième moitié du 17e siècle.
The painting by Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay, Vase d’or, fleurs et buste de Louis XIV, is a reception piece of the french academician painter to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1687. Unfortunately having been little studied, this painting reveals three very interesting issues. First of all, it contain three kind of painting in one composition: still life, portrait and history painting, illustrated respectively by the flowers, the bust of Louis XIV and the piece of armor. The combination of these three types in a still life is uncommon in the 17th century French painting. It is therefore necessary to check if there is a link between the flowers, the picture of Louis XIV and the armor. Then, the contrast between the polychrome of the flowers and the monochrome of the sculpture and furniture is striking, it is possible to associate this contrast to the phenomenon of the debates between drawing and color of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture during the second half of the 17th century. Moreover, the flowers, which were not the central subject in the original program of Le Brun, become the main subject of the table and occupy a more important place than the bust of Louis XIV. This change has not shocked the judges of the Academy since the painting was accepted without question. It therefore leads to think about the hierarchy of genres of painting, which was the official doctrine of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture at the time. The core of this research is to see if the flowers occupy a mere decorative function, or whether they may be associated with symbols. Our research will verify the employ of floral symbols in French culture of the 17th century and then developed this employ not only in the political field, which means the flowers are in praise of Louis XIV, but also in the aesthetics domain, that is to say how the painting reflects by employing floral symbols the evolution of the theories of art in France during the second half of the 17th century, the hierarchy of genres of painting and the debates between drawing and color.

Le tableau de Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay intitulé Vase d’or, fleurs et buste de Louis XIV est le morceau de réception que le peintre a présenté à l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture en 1687. Malheureusement peu étudié, ce tableau n’en comporte pas moins trois problématiques très intéressantes. Tout d’abord, il rassemble trois genres de peinture dans une seule composition : la nature morte, le portrait et la peinture d’histoire, illustrés respectivement par les fleurs, le buste du roi et la pièce d’armure. L’association de ces trois genres dans un tableau de nature morte est peu commune dans la peinture française du 17e siècle. Il est donc nécessaire de vérifier s’il existe un lien entre les fleurs, l’image de Louis XIV et l’armure. Ensuite, le contraste entre la polychromie des fleurs et la monochromie de la sculpture et de l’ameublement est frappante ; il est possible de lier ce contraste au phénomène des débats entre le dessin et la couleur de l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture à la deuxième moitié du 17e siècle. D’ailleurs, les fleurs, qui n’étaient pas le sujet central dans le programme original de Le Brun, deviennent le sujet principal du tableau et occupent une place plus importante que le buste de Louis XIV. Cette modification n’a cependant pas choqué les juges de l’Académie puisque la toile a été acceptée sans contestation. Elle amène donc à s’interroger sur la hiérarchie des genres de peinture qui est la doctrine officielle de l’Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture de l’époque. Le noyau de la recherche consiste à vérifier si les fleurs n’occupent qu’une simple fonction décorative ou si elles peuvent être associées à des symboles. Notre recherche examine d’abord l’utilisation des symboles floraux dans la culture française du 17e siècle. Par la suite, elle étudie cette utilisation dans le domaine politique, à savoir que les fleurs pourraient être liées à la louange de Louis XIV. Enfin, elle analyse les domaines artistiques et esthétiques, c’est-à-dire la façon dont le tableau reflète, par l’utilisation des symboles floraux, l’évolution des théories de l’art, la hiérarchie des genres de peinture et les débats du dessin et de la couleur, en France, durant la deuxième moitié du 17e siècle.
The painting by Jean-Baptiste Belin de Fontenay, Vase d’or, fleurs et buste de Louis XIV, is a reception piece of the french academician painter to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1687. Unfortunately having been little studied, this painting reveals three very interesting issues. First of all, it contain three kind of painting in one composition: still life, portrait and history painting, illustrated respectively by the flowers, the bust of Louis XIV and the piece of armor. The combination of these three types in a still life is uncommon in the 17th century French painting. It is therefore necessary to check if there is a link between the flowers, the picture of Louis XIV and the armor. Then, the contrast between the polychrome of the flowers and the monochrome of the sculpture and furniture is striking, it is possible to associate this contrast to the phenomenon of the debates between drawing and color of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture during the second half of the 17th century. Moreover, the flowers, which were not the central subject in the original program of Le Brun, become the main subject of the table and occupy a more important place than the bust of Louis XIV. This change has not shocked the judges of the Academy since the painting was accepted without question. It therefore leads to think about the hierarchy of genres of painting, which was the official doctrine of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture at the time. The core of this research is to see if the flowers occupy a mere decorative function, or whether they may be associated with symbols. Our research will verify the employ of floral symbols in French culture of the 17th century and then developed this employ not only in the political field, which means the flowers are in praise of Louis XIV, but also in the aesthetics domain, that is to say how the painting reflects by employing floral symbols the evolution of the theories of art in France during the second half of the 17th century, the hierarchy of genres of painting and the debates between drawing and color.