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IMMORTAL APPLES
ETERNAL EGGS

IMMORTAL APPLES, ETERNAL EGGS

This autumn, delve into the depth and complexity of the still life genre.

Drawing from two of the UK´s most significant collections – the Ingram Collection and the David and Indrė Roberts Collection – the exhibition will be a wide-ranging show of more than 30 works. Tracing still life’s darker undercurrents of death and violence, to its qualities of magic and transformation, the exhibition will reimagine this well-known but often overlooked genre.

With its focus on modern British art, the Ingram Collection has several still life works that show how the genre developed strikingly in Britain, such as a work by official War Artist, Ruskin Spear (1911-1990), or the metal assemblages of Sir Anthony Caro (1924-2013). Ranging from surrealism to abstraction and encompassing paintings, drawings and sculpture, selected works from the collection show how still life has been a source of radical artistic experiments throughout the 20th century.

The David and Indrė Roberts Collection is rooted in a passion for contemporary art and features works by artists from the mid-20th century to the present day. Key works that will be on display from this Collection span from direct contemporary interpretations of the genre to those which challenge our assumptions of what still life can be today. Works by artists including Ai Weiwei (b.1957), Sarah Lucas (b.1962), Patrick Caulfield (1936-2005), Phyllida Barlow (1944-2023) and Hew Locke (b.1959) show us our enduring fascination with the subjects, themes and ideas that still life grapples with, from our obsession with commodities to our capacity to transform everyday objects into things of wonder.

Image: Mary Fedden, Orange and Green Still Life, 1957,oil on canvas. Image courtesy of The Ingram Collection.

Sarah Lucas, Grace, 2006, tights, kapok, wooden chair. Courtesy of Sadie Coles HQ, London. © Sarah Lucas
Ansel Krut, Teacup at a Table, 2008, oil on canvas. Courtesy of Modern Art, London. © Ansel Krut
John Armstrong, Chance and Skill, 1956, oil on canvas. Image courtesy of The Ingram Collection
William Turnbull, Strange Fruit, 1959, bronze with green patina on a cement base. Image courtesy of The Ingram Collection
Louise Giovanelli, Offer, 2022, oil on canvas. Courtesy of GRIMM, London. Photographer Jonathan de Waart. © Louise Giovanelli
Marilyn Minter, Split, 2003, c-print. Courtesy Salon 94, New York. © Marilyn Minter
Ben Nicholson, still life l.l. 1926, oil on canvas. Image courtesy of The Ingram Collection
Mark Gertler, The Doll, 1914, oil on canvas. Image courtesy of The Ingram Collection