Peter Dreher, Amalie Kärcher, Karin Kneffel, Dieter Krieg, Ferdinand Küss, Emilie Preyer, Johann Wilhelm Preyer, Thomas Schütte, Cornelius Völker
The World of the Sixth Day of Creation
Cornelius Völker: Blüten, 2020. Öl auf Leinwand, 180 x 120 cm. Photo: Achim Kukulies, Düsseldorf. Courtesy Cornelius Völker & Galerie Friese.
Peter Dreher: Tag um Tag ist guter Tag, 1993. Öl auf Karton, 19,9 x 13,8 cm. Photo: Maximilian Rossner, München.
Paintings and works on paper by:
Peter Dreher (1932–2020), Amalie Kärcher (1819–1887), Karin Kneffel (b. 1957), Dieter Krieg (1937–2005), Ferdinand Küss (1800–1886), Emilie Preyer (1849–1930), Johann Wilhelm Preyer (1803–1889), Thomas Schütte (b. 1954), Adolf Senff (1785–1863), Cornelius Völker (b. 1965)—all still lifes, naturally.
“She was thinking how all true still lifes can arouse this happy, insatiable sadness. The longer you look at them, the clearer it becomes that the things they depict seem to stand on the colorful shore of life, their eyes filled with monstrous things, their tongues paralyzed.”
It makes no difference whether these works are from the nineteenth, twentieth, or twenty-first century: still lifes have this incredible effect on us, they bring us face to face with perfection.
“‘All still lifes really paint the world of the sixth day of creation, when God and the world were still by themselves, with no people!’ And to his sister’s questioning smile he said: ‘So what they arouse in people would probably be jealousy, secret inquisitiveness, and grief!’”
So that’s what it is: when we look at these images, we see something very simple—a key, a vase, flowers in a vase, peaches in front of an idyllic landscape, two pears—and these items evoke the deepest feelings in us.
“For the strange resemblance to their own life was an obstacle that kept both of them from adequately expressing themselves about the uncanny art of the still life or nature morte.”
We can be filled with wonder at grapes that glow, peaches that are clearly posteriors, flies that are part of life without needing to be swatted away, an acrobatic snail that defies gravity on a marble slab, a gray bathtub that teaches us how to sink, and flowers that are made to float through space. This is art that simply exists—but that also poses the most beautiful questions.
All quotations from: Robert Musil, The Man Without Qualities (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften)
