Still Life: Treasures from the Collection features still life compositions from the Moreton

Bay Regional Council Art Collection. The chosen works demonstrate the diversity of

approach to the genre in contemporary art practice. This exhibition includes works by

Margaret Olley, Ray Crooke, Gwyn Hanssen Pigott, Gregory William Grant, Vida Lahey,

Yvonne Mills-Stanley, Piet Noest, John Brigden, Elizabeth Duguid, Vicky Taylor and

Thornton Walker.

The term still life refers to works of art that feature an arrangement of inanimate objects

(nature morte), either natural or man-made. Over the centuries, numerous artists have

been fascinated by studying inanimate objects, musing on the symbolism of everyday

objects. With origins dating from the time of ancient Egypt, still life painting emerged as

a specific genre in Western art from around the 16th Century. Artists from Jan Breughel

to Rembrandt to Paul Cezanne, Pablo Picasso and Giorgio Morandi have invested their

attentions on the still life.

Two Australian artists Margaret Olley and Gwyn Hanssen Pigott were renowned for

their still life artworks and show the breadth of interpretation of the genre. Olley’s

The Gift Basket, is a traditional still life of a basket of vegetables set out on a cheerful

blue gingham table cloth. Hanssen Pigott‘s Flutter is part of a series of ‘still lifes’ that

suggest, by the juxtaposition of playfully coloured ceramic pieces, a certain sort of

movement.

STILL LIFE: TREASURES FROM THE COLLECTION