「Look at the Picture and Talk about the Painting」Still Life: The Artistic Temperature in Daily Life

Perhaps no one would linger long before a still life painting. Those fruits, vases and cardboard boxes are all the most familiar objects in life. They neither have the grand narrative of historical paintings nor the strong impact of abstract paintings. However, with the most simple and ordinary images of daily life, they conceal the softest warmth of art.

The charm of still life lies in its deep entanglement with life and its rich spiritual connotations. It combines privacy, family, entertainment, decoration and symbolism. Those daily used “objects” are not only visual presentations but also carriers of sensory associations such as touch and smell, conveying the technology, thoughts and desires behind the objects.

Just like Zhang Enli’s buckets, the deep black inner walls that seem to swallow all light yet reveal a faint bluish-gray hue at the edges. He regards these everyday items as “containers”, carrying the traces of time and the state of human existence. “Objects, like people, can also become a kind of portrait.” These ordinary objects without obvious symbolic features have a stronger openness, capable of reflecting the state of human existence and self-identity like a mirror.

The charm of still life lies precisely in this: it does not have the oppressive sense of large-scale dimensions, yet it reveals the big through the small, encapsulating the explorations and moods of generations of artists within the ordinary of a single canvas. Still life makes us realize that art exists in every corner around us. Those overlooked daily objects truly record and carry the explorations and emotional warmth of the artists. In the fast-paced modern life, still life makes us slow down, re-examine the beauty of daily life that we have ignored, and feel the most genuine connection between art and life.

The tea for today is all gone. Next time, I’ll brew a fresh pot and enjoy art with you again.