Hastings Contemporary announces a major new show, exploring the rich and complex genre of still life.
Immortal Apples, Eternal Eggs is a meeting of two of the UK’s most significant collections – The Ingram Collection and the David and Indrė Roberts Collection – and will include work from artists including Phyllida Barlow, Louise Bourgeois, Sir Anthony Caro, Patrick Caulfield, Michael Craig-Martin, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson and Sarah Lucas.
The exhibition juxtaposes world-class contemporary sculpture, video and installation alongside traditional still life painted works. It aims to challenge assumptions about this familiar genre, inviting new perspectives and asking viewers: what really is still life?
More than 50 artworks will be on display, created by more than 50 artists over the past 100 years.
The exhibition will begin with a dramatic and theatrical display in the gallery’s largest space, placing large-scale sculptures by Cathie Pilkington and Ai Weiwei alongside paintings by artists including Ansel Krut and John Armstrong.
The show will progress thematically, journeying through trace and absence, wildness and cultivation, production and consumption, and magic and transformation, while also delving into still life’s darker undercurrents of death, violence and exploitation with works by Lonnie Holley, Gabriella Boyd and William Turnbull.
Using The Ingram Collection’s Modern British art works, the exhibition will explore how artists began to interpret the genre in the 20th century, and with the contemporary works of the David and Indrė Roberts Collection, expand our understanding of what constitutes a still life and where the genre is heading. The pairing of these significant collections will enable an intense and playful dialogue between art of the past and contemporary art, with works from emerging and early-career artists – such as Ingram Prize winner Abigail Norris – and more than 20 works that have never been seen in a public gallery before by artists such as Craigie Aitchison, Louise Bourgeois and Michael Craig-Martin.
Immortal Apples, Eternal Eggs: 21 September 2024 – 16 March 2025
Location: Hastings Contemporary, Rock-a-Nore Road, Hastings TN34 3DW
Opening times: Wednesday – Sunday, and bank holidays, 11am – 5pm, last entry 4.30pm
Ticket Price: Adults; £11 / £10 without donation; Local residents – £5.50 / £5 without donation; Art Fund; £5.50 / £5 without donation; Students; £7; Under 18s; FREE; Members and Patrons; FREE; Pension Credit, unemployed, PIP, DLA and carers; FREE.
Further Information IMMORTAL APPLES, ETERNAL EGGS