Photography and still life
The selection of photographs from the Collection of the Museu Nacional being exhibited here speaks for the interest the field of still life aroused among some of the leading photographers in Catalonia, returning to a motif that is well represented in one of the rooms housing the Collection of Renaissance and Baroque Art.
The set presents a wide range of visual and aesthetic choices, closely tied to the Baroque pictorial tradition, recovering the genre’s poetic dimension and its wish to transcend the time frame. Specialities like the vase of flowers or the fruit bowl (Otho Lloyd), flowers (Humberto Rivas), game (Josep Maria Casals i Ariet, Joaquim Pla Janini, Oriol Maspons), laid tables (Toni Catany, Josep Maria Lladó) and –who knows?– vanitas (as suggested by the pocket watch that marks the passage of time, Emili Godes) make perfect examples.
Emili Godes, Still life, circa 1930 |
Josep Maria Casals i Ariet, Partridge (Still Life), 1930-1950 |
Humberto Rivas, Flower, 1991 |