San José Museum of Art

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The Not-So-Still Life: A Century of California Painting and Sculpture

  • A painting of a dining table covered with a table cloth, set with utensils and a tomato juice. In front of the juice is a newspaper opened to the comics featuring dogs. In the background a yellow cloth is draped. It appears to be outdoors.

    George Brandriff, Sunday Breakfast, c. 1935; Oil on canvas; 24 x 30 in.; The Buck Collection, Laguna Beach, California 

  • Guy Rose, From the Dining Room Window, c. 1910; Oil on canvas; 35 x 23 in.; Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas B. Stiles II 

  • Robert Therrien, No Title (white plates), 1993; Ceramic epoxy on fiberglass; 94 x 60 x 60 in.; The Broad Art Foundation, Santa Monica

  • Wayne Thiebaud, Pies, Pies, Pies, 1961, Oil on canvas; 20 x 30 in.; Crocker Art Museum, Gift of Philip L. Ehlert in Memory of Dorothy Evelyn Ehlert. 

  • Paul Wonner, Dutch Still Life with Stacked Objects, 1983, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 64 inches. 

  • A realistic painting of an oversized coffee bean and leaf growing from the rear. A tiny blue pebble is in front of the bean. The ground is tan and the background is a deep blue.

    Dorr Bothwell, Growth in Silence,1931-32, oil on canvas, 20 x 14 inches 

  • A colorful sketch with 6 bottles of varying drinks lined up under a green light and surrounded by a number of white lights in the background. Light from the green bulb is drawn as if it is webs extending across the painting.

    Lari Pittman, Mix Vigorously and Ingest (#4), 1997, acrylic, alkyd, aerosol enamel, 47 x 57-1/2 inches, Courtesy Regan Projects, Los Angeles 

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    Today's still life is no longer still. It has not only moved off the table, but off the wall and into three dimensions. This exhibition traced the intriguing evolution of still life in California from the turn of the century until about 2000, investigating the great variety of media the theme now engages—from the assemblage tableaux of George Herms to the oversized stacked plates of Robert Therrien.

    Lead sponsorship of The Not-So-Still Life was provided by Deborah and Andy Rappaport. Sponsorship was provided by the Myra Reinhard Family Foundation; Wells Fargo; Adaptec; and the Kent and Rita Norton Foundation.

    Traveled: The Pasadena Museum of California Art in Pasadena, California, March 6–June 27, 2004

    Sponsors

    • Wells Fargo
    • Deborah and Andy Rappaport
    • Myra Reinhard Family Foundation
    • Adaptec
    • Kent and Rita Norton Foundation