Surrey Homes | SH43 | May 2018 | Restoration & New Build supplement inside

Capturing moments
Artists and gallery directors consider the enduring appeal of still life paintings
Liz Gilmore
Director of the Jerwood Gallery, Hastings
My first job was as an educationalist and lecturer at the
National Gallery in London. You only have to walk
through those galleries to understand the enduring appeal
of the still life paintings from the 1400s onwards.
Still life painting from the late 16th century displays
in exquisite detail the new excitement of the new finds
arriving in Europe from sea exploration. Fruits and
flowers from ‘exotic’ places became status symbols for
those commissioning still life paintings. Then there is the
drama of light and subject matter captured in the vanitas
paintings, which used skulls and other symbolism to convey
clear Christian messages about the transience of life.
I was always struck by the freshness and vibrancy of those
works which I know continue to be a source of inspiration
for artists today. Jerwood Gallery in Hastings was built to
house the Jerwood Collection of modern and contemporary
British art and to have a changing programme of exhibitions.
The Collection evolved from the personal interests
of its collector, Alan Grieve and still life has been a core
Paul Feiler, Still Life with Fruit, 1949
“Every decade of Modern British art is
represented through still life at the Jerwood”
theme throughout its evolution. One of the first works
acquired was Frank Brangwyn’s, From my Window
at Ditchling (below right). Painted around 1925, it
captures an open window view into East Sussex, with
four vases dominating the foreground window ledge.
Every decade of Modern British work is represented
through still life, from Dod Procter in the 1930s; John
Craxton, Matthew Smith in the 40s; Anne Redpath in the
50s; John Bratby and William Scott, in the 60s and 70s.
Our latest exhibition is a retrospective of a fascinating
Modern British artist, born in Frankfurt, Paul Feiler. Our
visitors know him well from the fabulous abstract work
Chrome and Lemon (1956), it’s one of our visitors’ favourite
works from the collection. They will be pleased and surprised,
I’m sure, to see a diminutive little early work by him, a still
life of apples, Still Life With Fruit, from 1949 (above right).
Last year we did an exhibition of studio wall paintings by
Turner Prize-winning artist Keith Tyson, which was a kind
of 20 year visual diary. It was a fabulous and immersive show
capturing his fascination with still life via his flower paintings.
My favourite still life in the collection would probably be
a wrestle between a simple little black and white linocut by
Ben Nicholson (Three Mugs and a Bowl, 1928) which has
a wonderful sense of line and touch and a work by David
Sir Frank Brangwyn, From my Window at Ditchling, c. 1925 © The Estate
of Frank Brangwyn by kind permission of David Brangwyn
Bomberg (Flowers in a Terracotta Pot, 1945). There is a real
poignancy to both. Bomberg began painting flowers when
his wife bought them to encourage him to paint something
to lift him out of a deep depression. After that he would go
to the market every day to buy fresh flowers to paint. This
harks back to the symbolic and expressive qualities of still life.
Jerwood Gallery, Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings Old
Town, TN34 3DW 01424 728377 jerwoodgallery.org
81 surrey-homes.co.uk