Summative Exhibition.
Rebecca Lethbridge, ‘Still Life Across 60 Years’ 2023, Acrylic, oil, pencil and watercolour on canvas, April 2023, 33 x 40 inches.Research question: ‘How have artists changed the way they portray food in their work over the past 60 years?’ Acrylic, oil, pencil and watercolour painting of a still life scene I created to highlight some of the key findings from my research across the 60 years (Roy Lichtenstein’s glass bowl and stripes, Audrey Flack’s flowers, paints, grapes, Gerhard Richter’s apples and black shading, James Paterson’s non-natural coloured fruit, and Sarah Graham’s sweets).
Overall, food was portrayed with greater significance and meaning throughout the 1960s and 1970s, with foods such as apples, oranges, bananas and grapes symbolising wealth, decay, sour and sweet flavours, and global trade. In the 1980s and 1990s food wasn’t portrayed with as much significance but artist Audrey Flack used food to link to feminism. From the 2000s onwards food symbolism is less relevant in artists’ work, although Kara Walker and Joel Penkman used food to represent familiarity, slavery, and memories.
Rebecca Lethbridge, ‘Still Life Across 60 Years’ 2023, Acrylic, oil, pencil and watercolour on canvas, April 2023, 33 x 40 inches.
Rebecca Lethbridge, ‘Still Life Across 60 Years’ 2023, Acrylic, oil, pencil and watercolour on canvas, April 2023, 33 x 40 inches.
Rebecca Lethbridge, ‘Still Life Across 60 Years’ 2023, Acrylic, oil, pencil and watercolour on canvas, April 2023, 33 x 40 inches.
Rebecca Lethbridge, ‘Still Life Across 60 Years’ 2023, Acrylic, oil, pencil and watercolour on canvas, April 2023, 33 x 40 inches.
Rebecca Lethbridge, ‘Still Life Across 60 Years’ 2023, Acrylic, oil, pencil and watercolour on canvas, April 2023, 33 x 40 inches.
Rebecca Lethbridge, ‘Still Life Across 60 Years’ 2023, Acrylic, oil, pencil and watercolour on canvas, April 2023, 33 x 40 inches.
Photography showing different angles and close up pictures to show detail.