Still Life Painting
• Part Four
It is slightly more difficult to write about a genre of art rather than a single chosen Master, simply because each of the genres - Still-life, Imaginative Compositions (what used to be called “History Paintings”) the Nude, Portraiture, the Landscape, and Genre Painting, have such fascinating (and long!) histories, enough to fill many big fat books. Also, each genre has had a list longer than my arm of artists who have experimented within its boundaries, either to express themselves, express the genre, or even simply to break those boundaries and discover new ones. But my purpose in writing these articles is to introduce the reader not only to my personal favourite artists, but the ones who have most profoundly influenced my own work. The number of works outside that influence that I know and love are so great, however, that to share my pleasure I will write a list of at least a few of them at the end of my article to give my reader a chance to know them, if they don’t already. I shall do that also with all the other genres I will write about.
Of course, I believe that there is no point in simply painting things that have been painted countless times before, and often quite brilliantly, and so I was always looking for new ways of “seeing.” I discovered in India that in Asia, Art is thought of very much as a form of worship. In other words the artist, and his ego, don’t come into it. No works are signed of course, and no one minds who did them, believing, as indeed do the artists themselves, that the work comes from God and the artist is no more than an extremely privileged “channel.” This thought corresponds so much with my own philosophy that I didn’t sign my work for many years, until the chagrin of dealers and clients alike caused me to return to doing so. But also, on discovering this beautiful thought, it led me to creating the “Worship Series.” As a raw food vegetarian at the time, fruit was a mainstay in my diet and so I had an extremely appreciative view of it. To discover its beauty of colour and form on top of its amazing tastes was the source of inspiration behind many of those little paintings, which remain amongst my favourite works of my life.
 "L'incertitude du Počte"
De Chirico
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 Detail From The Still Life Doorframe
Christian
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Towards the end of my years of still-life painting I had also become intensely interested in Surrealism, and was delighted to discover other Surrealists who had included fruit in their compositions, or used food as their source of inspiration.. From then on, I would occasionally add a surprising twist to my works.
Detail From The Still Life Doorframe
Christian
 The Garlic Still Life
Christian |
Most artists are known for having been associated with one or perhaps two particular subjects in Art. Say Turner or Constable for example, and one automatically thinks of Landscape. Think of Portraits and one will think of Rembrandt, although perhaps he is equally known for his religious paintings, his “History Paintings.” Rubens, although also known for his portraits, is more immediately associated with the Nude. And so on. One of the very unusual aspects of my life as an artist has been that at some point or other I have been deeply, passionately, involved with each and every one of the genres, as well as Drapery and Interiors, which aren’t even really “official” genres, and of course drawing. The reason for that is actually quite simple. Inspired particularly by the Sistine Chapel ceiling and the major works of Rubens and Rembrandt, my main ambition from when I was very young was to paint Imaginative Compositions, that were likely to incorporate most or all of the other genres too. In order to approach this subject with total mastery, it seemed only logical that I had to master each one of the separate genres first. Then what would happen was that as soon as I started on one of them, I would become so involved in the subject I felt as if I could work on just that for my whole life! The first subject to hold me was portraiture. I worked with that exclusively for fifteen years, earning my living by it as well as studying and gaining the experience that led to portraying many hundreds of people, and to the kind of mastery I was seeking, behind, for example, “The Golden Turban,” a portrait I made in four or five hours, of a dear friend of mine in Morocco at the end of 1979.
The next subject I became obsessed by was in fact Still-Life, particularly from 1978, in Paris, to 1994 in Bali. During those sixteen years I painted many hundreds of still-lifes, always experimenting, always trying to find new ways of expressing my (extremely excited, passionate) feelings towards things from fruit to textiles, I was particularly fond of lace. As for fruit, I virtually lived as a fruitarian, eating little else for a number of years during that period, so no wonder my feelings about fruit were fairly passionate. But to show you the range of experiments I made with the genre, there is, on the grand scale, “African Daisy,” or on the opposite end of the scale of simplicity another of my favourites, “The Garlic Still Life.” I then made a series of small ones which I called the Worship Series, in which, on 6”x6” panels, I could concentrate entirely on one particular fruit in the greatest detail, and keep it simple at the same time. Two favourite still-lifes of those years is the “Knife on a Basket,” painted in Paris in 1978, and “Mango in a Bowl on Cloth,” painted in Bali in 1990. That first painting, the tiny little “Knife on a Basket” has two interesting anecdotes connected to it. The first is that just after I had finished it, I was visited by the wife of the painter Botero, whose work I do not particularly admire. And so I was delighted by her exclamation on seeing my little painting, “Well, it’s a lot better than anything I’ve ever seen my husband do!” It has to be admitted that they had just separated, and so perhaps she was feeling a little bitter towards that painter, but still I was pleased to receive such a compliment for such a special little painting. The second story is that I came to love this painting so much that I had decided not to sell it. Circumstances all too typical of an artist’s life prevailed however, and one day I met a lady in New York who really wanted to buy it. Noticing my despondent expression to her enthusiasm, this unusually sensitive lady told me to come and see where she intended to hang the work, if I agreed to sell it to her. She took me into a quite large room (in her apartment) in which her collection was rather beautifully hung. Standing me before two works that had a space in between them just the right size for my little work, I saw that it was indeed the best place for my painting. It was to be hung between the best examples I have ever seen of the work of Van Gogh, on one side and Gaugin on the other.
Another way that one might categorize still-lifes is in the approach of the artist to his subject. I have found so many different ways of painting in this genre, from just making what is little more than studies to what I call “OTT’s” and everything in between. The Worship Series are like studies in a way, inasmuch as I just take one subject and concentrate my - and the viewer’s - focus on that. What I mean by OTT are the paintings that aren’t exactly just still lifes, but are large paintings in which the still - life, instead of being a beautiful and tiny detail, is still the actual subject. Two examples are by Jan Davidz de Heem and Adriaen van Utrecht. Chardin also painted several large works like this where game was at the forefront, as indeed did Delacroix. The nearest I ever got to one of these was a composition I created one day out of my favourite things in my studio at that moment, including my mannequin, Mr. Frank, and also showing an aspect of the interior of the molino, where I was living, in Tuscany. It shows the exit from my bedroom door looking down into the living room. I also had my first opportunity of painting glass and loved it, finding it to be just one of those things for which I had a natural facility, as opposed to various other subjects in painting that I have had to really struggle with a lot more. The painting measured about 5ft x 3ft.
 Still Life Paintings, Part Five
Anthony Christian
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 Mango in a Bowl on Cloth
Christian |
 Knife on a Basket
Christian |
 Prunkstilleben
Jan Davidz de Heem |
 Ein Festliches Mahl
Adriaen van Utrecht |
 Molino Still Life
Christian
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