Browse Items (64 total)

More than a dozen species of fruit and flowers are mounded on a bed of grass. The painting's upper half, a skillfully mottled background, is crucial for establishing the space necessary to make sense of the lower half--without it, those objects…

An apparently straightforward scene of home construction reveals a more complex, interconnected relationship between humans and the rest of nature. In the left foreground we see the stump of a tree, either downed by windfall or more likely cut down.…

The plant depicted here probably is a Japanese arrowhead (Saggitaria japonica), which is native to marshes and due to its edible tuber occasionally called a “duck potato.” Kadowaki’s interest certainly is aesthetic—due to its distinctive leafs and…

We approach this still life obliquely, as a momentary and almost casual glimpse of domestic space: a covered table is pushed against the wall, next to a door frame, holding a few everyday objects set down in passing. Yet each of them points beyond…

A beautifully balanced composition depicts, on either side of its central planter, a knobbly gourd and ringed vase of similar shape. Our conception of what constitutes a garden blurs distinctions between human-cultivated plants and human-created…

This enigmatic watercolor is organized around the small figurine at left, probably a mythical Japanese fox-spirit called kitsune. Their intelligence and shape-shifting ability renders them an ambiguous omen: perhaps as shapeshifting tricksters,…

This dramatic still life is created using bold brush strokes and skillful blending, combined with high-contrast lighting. Two vases—one of gladiolus, the other filled with yellow roses—sit upon a small table near a brick wall and arched window. A…

The objects in this still life are candidly imperfect: all the bananas have spots; the apples are mottled or appear to have bruises. Still, their colors are vibrant and the table is replete. More of Kallem’s attention has been devoted to…

This complex still life plays with how the natural world makes its way into artistic forms and representation. A grouping of fruit at upper left is echoed in the fabric’s shapes at lower right, as with the bell pepper’s distinctive shape. A pear at…

A cryptic, maybe private allegory is signalled by this still life. We look downward to a table in disarray: yes, the towel is artfully draped, but eleven cherries are scattered from a bowl; the carafe of water doesn’t match a coffee cup and saucer;…