1913, Max Pechstein, Still Life in Grey -- Courtauld Gallery (London) (special exhibition)
From the exhibition label: In her founding deed, written in 1932, Lady Barber stipulated that no works produced in the 20th century be purchased for the collection. This was changed in 1967 and since then, a number of significant modernist works have been acquired, such as this radical still life by the German Expressionist artist Max Pechstein. At its centre, nestled among more commonly depicted oranges and lemons, is the surprising form of a cauliflower. These elements rest upon a carved stool from Cameroon, then a German colony, beside a traditional blue and white German jug. Like many other avant-garde European artists, Pechstein was fascinated by what he thought to be the expressive power of African art. This admiration was rooted in a Eurocentric idea that such art was 'primitive' and therefore vital and elemental -- a discredited notion that perpetuated racist stereotypes.
1913, Max Pechstein, Still Life in Grey -- Courtauld Gallery (London) (special exhibition)
From the exhibition label: In her founding deed, written in 1932, Lady Barber stipulated that no works produced in the 20th century be purchased for the collection. This was changed in 1967 and since then, a number of significant modernist works have been acquired, such as this radical still life by the German Expressionist artist Max Pechstein. At its centre, nestled among more commonly depicted oranges and lemons, is the surprising form of a cauliflower. These elements rest upon a carved stool from Cameroon, then a German colony, beside a traditional blue and white German jug. Like many other avant-garde European artists, Pechstein was fascinated by what he thought to be the expressive power of African art. This admiration was rooted in a Eurocentric idea that such art was 'primitive' and therefore vital and elemental -- a discredited notion that perpetuated racist stereotypes.