IMPLICATIONS OF STILL LIFE REPRESENTATION OF THE DOMESTIC OBJECT by Renée Lynn Haggart B.A., University of British Columbia, 2007 PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN LIBERAL STUDIES In the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Graduate Liberal Studies © Renée Lynn Haggart 2010 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2010 All rights reserved. However in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada , this work may be reproduced without authorization under the conditions for Fair Dealing . Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. 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The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada Last revision: Spring 09 ABSTRACT Still life representation is a curious tension between the banal and the vital. The genre of still life has always been considered a minor artistic category, marginalized in critical discourse and rejected by artists in favour of weightier subjects. Though constantly disparaged and/or ignored, the depiction of small, inanimate objects has endured, persisted, and prevailed since ancient history - traceable back to Greco-Roman antiquity and beyond - while other, loftier forms of representation have fallen in and out of favour through the ages. The genre’s historical and continuing vitality and magnitude in the face of mediocrity and discrimination are explored through research of particular artistic examples. Also documented here is the process of the creation of several of my own visual works which were produced specifically in response to this research. iii DEDICATION Sincere thanks to June Sturrock, Anne-Marie Feenberg-Dibon, Phyllis Greenwood, and Aleteia Greenwood for their invaluable support, encouragement, and tremendously insightful discussion during the creation of this project. This project is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother, Ruth Lydia Richstad. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval.............................................................................................................................ii Abstract.............................................................................................................................iii Dedication .........................................................................................................................iv Table of Contents ..............................................................................................................v List of Figures....................................................................................................................vi 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................1 1.1 Status Of The Viewer..................................................................................................... 4 1.2 An Interior World ........................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Scope Of Project............................................................................................................. 8 2 ROMAN STILL LIFE ANTECEDENTS: A PLACE TO START ..............................................12 2.1 The Peach Speaks......................................................................................................... 15 3 THE NONHEROIC AND THE NEW INTIMACY: CHARDIN’S DOMESTIC SPACES.............22 3.1 A Reimagining of Pronk............................................................................................... 24 3.2 A Familiar and Reliable World..................................................................................... 33 4 MODERNISM, MEDITATION, AND MORANDI ............................................................35 4.1 Harmony and Control.................................................................................................. 36 4.2 Custom and Vigil .......................................................................................................... 43 5 POP ART STILL LIFE: The Postmodern Peach ..............................................................47 5.1 Claes Oldenburg’s Faux Foods .................................................................................... 48 5.2 Andy Warhol: The Compulsive Comforts of Home ................................................... 52 5.3 A Contemporary Pastiche............................................................................................ 58 6 TWO WAYS OF LOOKING: Artistic Investigations.......................................................60 6.1 Series One: Homeworld ............................................................................................... 60 6.2 Process.......................................................................................................................... 65 6.3 Series Two: Transfiguration ........................................................................................ 67 7 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................75 Works Cited..................................................................................................................... 78 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 . Photo by R. Haggart, 2005 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Giorgio Morandi Still Life in background. Figure 2 . Photo by R. Haggart, 2009 Louvre Museum, Paris. Jacques-Louis David, Coronation of Napoleon in background. Figure 3 . Francisco de Zurbáran – Lemons, Oranges, and a Rose, 1633. Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA. Source: Artstore. Image url: http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=4iFCeTg4NCciJy8laCt2KngqVXYseFt5eA%3D%3D& userId=hT1MczQ%3D &zoomparams= Figure 4. Twig with Peaches and Glass Jar of Water . Fresco from Herculaneum, before 79 CE. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy. Source: Art Resource. Image url: http://www.artres.com/c/htm/CSearchZ.aspx?o=&Total=3&FP=327529&E=22SIJMBU0NMEL&SID=JMGEJ NDU8XWD5&Pic=1&SubE=2UNTWAGCPKHE Figure 5. Lobster, Vase and Shells . Fresco from Herculaneum, before 79 CE. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Italy. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Image url: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pompejanischer_Maler_des_1._Jahrhunderts_v._Chr._001.jpg Figure 6. Unswept Floor . Mosaic, second century CE. Vatican Museum. Source: Artstor. Image url: http://library.artstor.org/library/#3|search|1|unswept20floor|Multiple20Collection20Search|||type3D31 26kw3Dunswept20floor26id3Dall26name3D Figure 7. Augustus Prima Porta , first century CE. Museo Chiaramonti. Source: Artstor. Image url: http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=4iFCeTg4NCciJy8laCt2KngqXXgjcVl6eyE%3D&user Id=hT1MczQ%3D &zoomparams= Figure 8. Jean-Honoré Fragonard - The Swing , 1768. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Source: Artstor. Image url: http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=8DlKaFMuKzQyKw%3D%3D&userId=hT1MczQ%3 D &zoomparams= Figure 9. Francois Boucher - Setting Sun , 1752. Wallace Collection, London England. Source: Artstor. Image url: http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=8CJGczI9NzldLS1WEDhzTnkrX3kseVt5eiY%3D&us erId=hT1MczQ%3D &zoomparams= vi Figure 10 . Pieter Claesz – Herring Breakfast, 1636. Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Source: Wikimedia Commons. Image url: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_Claesz_003.jpg Figure 11. Anne