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Underground > Art, Fashion & Design >

Still Life with a Beer Mug (PIC) (Annotations)

03:35 / 10.04.05

Fernand Léger 1881-1955

I saw this during my dash through the Tate and it was the only piece that really struck me which I wasn't already looking for.

I don't know anything about the artist - I wrote his last name down and resolved to look him up when I got home. So in order to try and get some discussion of art going, I am going to talk about why I like this painting, and hopefully you will respond and talk about it as well.

Bear with me - I know nothing of how to talk about art.

Okay, the first thing is the background. It looks like a Mondrian, the wallpaper alone could be a painting in intself.

Just in terms of shape and color, I think this piece is more liveable than any other cubism I've seen. By livable, I mean, "I could live in a room with it." Grosz's stuff and Picasso's Guernica are nice and all, but I wouldn't want to see them day in and day out.

Cubism was about using different perspectives simultaneously, which I suppose makes that field of blue the contents of the mug. But the round elements - the fruit(?), spoons(?), mug and water(?) make this feel really gentle.

There's a sort of radial symmetry at work - the canvas is divided into balanced quarters, while the lines and angles all seem to point back at the mug, really anchoring it as the focus of attention.

I don't mean to talk about this so much in terms of "less cubist than that other stuff," because I feel like I'm defending Lite FM. And I don't like this because it's less cubist - I think it manages to suceed simultaneously at being cubist and at being beautiful. Which, from what I've seen, is a hard trick to pull off.

All Acting Regiment

19:52 / 10.04.05

"And I don't like this because it's less cubist - I think it manages to suceed simultaneously at being cubist and at being beautiful. Which, from what I've seen, is a hard trick to pull off."

Essentially what you're saying is you don't have a problem with cubist art, but personally most of it doesn't do a lot for you, apart from this peice.

Which is fine- but I would argue that to me, Picasso's "Weeping Woman" is a beautiful painting. I'm not saying your taste is wrong, hey we're all different, just that to say that most cubist art is not beautiful is a bit of a generalisition, no? As you've explained what you like about this peice, perhaps you could explain what you dislike about other peices?

I think another interesting thing to draw out of this is the concept of "liveable" art that you mention: the idea that though you appreciate Picasso's Guernica, you wouldn't want it in your house. Which is of course personal taste again, but I think there's a deep question here about lifestyle and the inputs you choose. I mean, I don't always like the news that's reported in the newspaper, but I couldn't stand living without it.

Tryphena Absent

20:36 / 10.04.05

This is certainly a painting about contrasting shapes. The mug is obviously the first thing that your eye is drawn to, not only is it slap bang in the centre of the painting but it's set against the only grey objects and it's not quite sitting on the table. So clearly the mug is the subject of the painting and that's obvious without any knowledge of the title. You could argue that the curves of the mug and the colours used for it are representative of the type of liquid it's meant to hold... the inside of the mug is white and grey, which I find quite interesting.

The majority of the work is set out in right angles. Everything in the background except for the curtain is set in a square, rectangle or diamond, each circle is based in the middle of a square, in a sense this is true of the items set within the space of the table. The curtain is definitely at odds with the format in which everything else is placed and provides a striking element in a painting that's so formalised and systematic otherwise.

And of course the other thing about this painting is that you immediately know where the floor, the window and the wall are... is that a balcony I see?

21:06 / 10.04.05

Legba, I'm starting another thread to talk about Weeping Woman and about me and the art I'd eat breakfast with.

22:50 / 10.04.05

Cubism was about using different perspectives simultaneously, which I suppose makes that field of blue the contents of the mug.

The blue underneath? I think that's a bowl.

Tryphena Absent

23:04 / 10.04.05

I think the red is the content of the mug, the white streaks, patterns of or through the mug... the blue overhangs the left hand side of the mug so it probably is a bowl.

20:55 / 11.04.05

I don't like this painting. I think not for anything unique to the painting, but for the same reasons that I generally don't like (much of) Cubism, particularly Analytical Cubist paintings by Picasso & Braque. For starters, I think the use of color in AC (can I abbreviate?) is really ugly, and I've never understood it. It's always struck me as unconsidered, though I'm sure that's not true.

This painting, though not going to the extreme of monochrome or that allover brown mush that a lot of AC does, has that unconsidered look to it - it looks like vermillion, ochre, and ultramarine straight out of the tube, but also doesn't speak to "pure" color as it's all muddied up by achromatic grays.

I also really dislike the way the hard graphic look sits with the "painterly," almost amateurish brushstrokes. Again, that's something I dislike about Cubism generally. I think the two styles - graphic and painterly - only weaken each other in this kind of juxtaposition.

I like the underlying concept of Cubism - showing objects or scenes from all sides at once in a 2d painting - but visually, only when I see it in precursors like Manet and Cezanne.

14:31 / 12.04.05

What's really tragic is that I looked at this for a good 10 minutes before I realized that the yellow rectangle in the top center background is not, in fact, a microwave.

I'm wondering if the mug is transparent -- at first, it looks like it's a stein, painted red and blue. But I think it has to be, since there's liquid and a knife/fork/spoon handle visible through it. So it's playing with circular/cylindrical optics in a very colorful way -- a tube that interrupts all the angles. I wonder if that white curve in the red field within the mug is supposed to be a refracted or reflected image of its own handle, or if that's something from the table behind or an effect of light on the outer surface of the mug.

Tryphena Absent

15:50 / 12.04.05

I kind of thought that was to show us that the mug was glass, it's the other side of the top of the glass?? We don't see the liquid through it.