Today we look at two artists who took inspiration from still life past masters to create their own floral artwork, each with its own message and purpose.
Dan Tobin Smith’s Still Life with Flowers
Currently exhibiting at The Storeroom at L’Entrepôt in Dalston until June 8th as part of this year’s Chelsea Fringe, Dan Tobin Smith’s Still Life with Flowers builds on the work of Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750) and other great Dutch flower painters of the 17th and 18th Century. His process involved studying the form of their paintings, deconstructing them into geometric shapes, fabricating that into a steel framework, before finally stuffing the spaces with flowers that are representative of the originals. It’s experimental and offers a new way of seeing something we thought we already knew and that is why we like it. To experience the permanence and angularity of these metal structures set against the delicate transient curves of flowers, go visit. And in doing so you will be supporting the Chelsea Fringe, which is doing great work in opening up plant pleasures to a less exclusive, more alternative crowd.
Peter Lipmann for Christian Louboutin
Peter Lippmann had a slightly different purpose for the series of photographs he recently produced for french footwear designer Christian Louboutin – to help promote his Spring/ Summer 2014 collection. Yet he too took inspiration from past still life classics, reworking seven floral masterpieces by Brueghel, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent Van Gogh. How well his tributes to these artworks perform as a foil for shiny high heels.
