Still Life

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Still Life

Artist Jack Beal American, 1931-2013

Printer Fox Graphics

Place of OriginBoston

Date1978

DimensionsOverall (tipped on a sheet): H. 23 in. (58.5 cm): W. 29 in. (73.8 cm.);
On Sheet: H. 19 in. (48.3 cm); W. 24 15/16 in. (63.3 cm);
Image: H. 18 in. (45.7 cm); W. 24 1/2 in. (61.5 cm)

MediumColor lithograph printed on black Arches paper

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineFrederick B. and Kate L. Shoemaker Fund

Object number

1980.1334

Not on View

Collections

Works on Paper

Published References"Prints and Photographs Published", The Print Collector's Newsletter, Vol. X (May-June, 1979), p. 55.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Contempary Prints, August 17 - October 30, 1983, and January 14 - February 26, 1984.

Toledo Museum of Art, Contempary Realistic Prints, March 17, - June 3, 1984.

Label TextJack Beal, along with Philip Pearlstein and Alfred Leslie, is remembered as one of the foremost New Realists, a group of artists who in the 1960s and 70s repudiated abstraction in favor of figurative compositions and the depiction of common everyday objects. In his lithograph print Still Life, Beal provides a close-up view of an arrangement of lemons and oranges strewn across a geometric-patterned tablecloth. The diagonal recession of the ornamental tablecloth and the placement of fruit, along with the use of complementary colors, create a sense of vibrancy. By contrast, the glass vase, as the single vertical element, adds a note of stability and unites the composition with the white background. Similar to his Still Life Painter (on view elsewhere in the gallery), the artist imparts an atmosphere of mystery, conveyed through the strong play of dark and light. Beal’s decision to reverse the typical figure/ground relationship with the use of black paper as the support and his skillful handling of space and light displays a sophisticated and lively treatment of a slice-of-life composition.