Still Life No. 4
Item
Title
Still Life No. 4
Creator
William Bailey
American, b. 1930
American, b. 1930
Date
1976
Materials
Lithograph
Measurements
12 x 18 in. (30.5 x 45.7 cm)
Description
Although often identified as a realist, ostensibly because of his clearly delineated and readily recognizable imagery, it’s important to consider that 150 years ago William Bailey’s work would have related far less to the objective representations of Gustave Courbet and Édouard Manet than to the idealized efforts of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and his followers. Bailey himself has consistently maintained the distinction. “I admire painters who can work directly from nature,” he claims, "but for me that seems to lead to anecdotal painting. Realism is about interpreting daily life in the world around us. I’m trying to paint a world that’s not around us."
It is thus perhaps not surprising that, when asked about influences, he cites the far more abstract work of Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky, and then Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso, before looking further back to Ingres and Raphael. For each of these artists, all of whom could draw the finest of representational line, it was not so much a question of realism vs. abstraction as it was a question of form. For Bailey as well, whether his objects (all of which are drawn from memory) in his still lifes realistically relate to actual vessels pales in significance to how well they relate to one another to form a composition that takes on a life of its own, that, as he has said, "brings to life something with a presence, a silence, some sort of mystery."
It is thus perhaps not surprising that, when asked about influences, he cites the far more abstract work of Willem de Kooning and Arshile Gorky, and then Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso, before looking further back to Ingres and Raphael. For each of these artists, all of whom could draw the finest of representational line, it was not so much a question of realism vs. abstraction as it was a question of form. For Bailey as well, whether his objects (all of which are drawn from memory) in his still lifes realistically relate to actual vessels pales in significance to how well they relate to one another to form a composition that takes on a life of its own, that, as he has said, "brings to life something with a presence, a silence, some sort of mystery."
Source
Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University.
Identifier
76.123
Rights
This image is posted publicly for non-profit educational uses, excluding printed publication. Other uses are not permitted.