Hastings Contemporary announces a major new show, exploring the rich and complex genre of still life. Immortal Apples, Eternal Eggs is a meeting of two of the UK’s most significant collections – The Ingram Collection and the David and Indrė Roberts Collection – and will include work from artists including Phyllida Barlow, Louise Bourgeois, Sir Anthony Caro, Patrick Caulfield, Michael Craig-Martin, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and Sarah Lucas.
The exhibition juxtaposes world-class contemporary sculpture, video and installation alongside traditional still life painted works. It aims to challenge assumptions about this familiar genre, inviting new perspectives and asking viewers: what really is still life?
More than 50 artworks will be on display, created by more than 50 artists over the past 100 years.
The exhibition will begin with a dramatic and theatrical display in the gallery’s largest space, placing large-scale sculptures by Cathie Pilkington and Ai Weiwei alongside paintings by artists including Ansel Krut and John Armstrong.
Undercurrents
The show will progress thematically, journeying through trace and absence, wildness and cultivation, production and consumption, and magic and transformation, while also delving into still life’s darker undercurrents of death, violence and exploitation with works by Lonnie Holley, Gabriella Boyd and William Turnbull.
Using The Ingram Collection’s Modern British art works, the exhibition will explore how artists began to interpret the genre in the 20th century, and with the contemporary works of the David and Indrė Roberts Collection, expand our understanding of what constitutes a still life and where the genre is heading. The pairing of these significant collections will enable an intense and playful dialogue between art of the past and contemporary art, with works from emerging and early-career artists – such as Ingram Prize winner Abigail Norris – and more than 20 works that have never been seen in a public gallery before by artists such as Craigie Aitchison, Louise Bourgeois and Michael Craig-Martin.
The exhibition takes its title from Virginia Woolf’s description of painter and critic Roger Fry’s bedsit in 1940: “Frying pans were mixed with palettes; some plates held salad, other scrapings of congealed paint … on the table, protected by its placard, was the still life – those symbols of detachment, those tokens of a spiritual reality immune from destruction, the immortal apples, the eternal eggs”. English Modernist writer, Virginia Woolf was fundamental in showing how ordinary, everyday things can be imbued with extraordinary poetry. She also understood that art (in the broadest sense) need not necessarily deal with the dramatic and spectacular but with the immediate, domestic and supposedly banal – ideas that remain at the heart of the still life genre, and this show.
Fast forward to 2024 and the genre of still life has never been more relevant. The obsessive documentation of our lives, meals and homes for social media has turned us all into still life artists. And, while seemingly ordinary, every still life is shadowed by the exploitation of natural resources and labour. Immortal Apples, Eternal Eggs delves into all these themes through the lens of some of the most exciting artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, bringing this long-marginalised genre out into the spotlight.
Humour
Hastings Contemporary Director Liz Gilmore said “From magic and mystery to life and death, and the beauty of the domestic and ordinary, Immortal Apples, Eternal Eggs takes visitors on a surprising and thought-provoking journey through the genre of Still Life. The exhibition title was inspired by the writings of former Sussex resident, Virginia Woolf, and her intuitive understanding of the quiet poetry of everyday items. We are delighted that this collaboration with two prominent British art collections enables us to bring to Hastings World Class historic and contemporary art, in a celebration of some of the most significant artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Whether it be shock, surprise, humour, melancholy or delight, there is something for everyone in this exhibition!”
Ingram Collection Director Jo Baring said “We are thrilled to be working with the Roberts Institute of Art and Hastings Contemporary on this exhibition which reveals the continued relevance of Still Life to artists. Through their lens, we explore the vitality and dynamic energy within still life, offering visitors fresh and innovative perspectives on the everyday objects that populate our world.”
Roberts Institute of Art Director Kate Davies said “This collaborative exhibition presents a fresh take on Still Life, showcasing an exciting dialogue between two diverse collections and artworks by some of the most significant artists of the past 100 years. We are delighted to exhibit many works from the David and Indrė Roberts Collection that have never been seen in a public gallery before. Still Life is revealed here as a rich and complex genre, challenging our expectations and highlighting its profound and sometimes surprising influence on artists from the early 20th century to today.”
www.hastingscontemporary.org
See also: Affordable Art Fair in October
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