Five Facts about Still Life Art

1. Still lifes depict objects as their main subject matter. The objects can be natural or manmade and are conventionally “anything that does not move or is dead” [1].

For example, vases of plants and flowers are classic, recurring subjects in still life art, as with Sadie Barnette’s Birthday Flowers, Rashaad Newsome’s The Art of Immortality 2, Brittany Leanne Williams’ Untitled (Birds of Paradise), and Toyin Ojih Odutola’s Codex.

Generally, still lifes exclude living human figures and landscapes. However both appear in Elegies. Pay close attention to the faces in the foliage in Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s Grandmother’s Parlour. In Funeral Wallpaper you can see the faintest silhouette of artist Deana Lawson taking the photograph. David Antonio Cruz blurs the lines of landscape and still life in thefogsuspendedovertheland through the repetition of branches amounting to a forested landscape.

4. Memento mori and vanitas are two traditional categories of still lifes in Western art.

Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning “remember you must die.” These typically contemplate mortality and death [6]. Vanitas still lifes emphasize wealth and earthly pleasures—and warn of their impermanence [7].

William Villalongo’s Feast with Nkisi viscerally references death by featuring the only weapon in the show.

Devan Shimoyama’s For Tamir VII and For Tamir VIII reference more than just the site of the murder of 12-year-old Tamir Rice by Cleveland police in 2014. The swings, common to virtually every playground, are a site of commemoration of Tamir’s life and other young Black lives.

Azikwe Mohammed’s fluorescent Ms. Keisha’s for Dinner, These N***** Got Money #3 could be considered a vanitas. Listen to the artist speak about the symbolism of oranges as an announcement of wealth.

Lakela Brown’s Gold Teeth Still Life #2 evokes both memento mori and vanitas. The flash of gold elevates hip hop culture, while the crown itself is an admission of decay (cavities). The stacked gums and teeth remind us of the fragile components of the human body.