DEAD LIFE

© The Artists

DEAD LIFE 1999

Bank

Details

Dimension
50 X 70 CM EACH
Media
OIL ON CANVAS (TRIPTYCH)
Accession number
P7526/A-C

Summary

Since the early 1990s artist group Bank’s activities have been characterised by a persistent irreverence and a determination to critique the complacency of the artworld and its institutions. In their non-gallery space, rebranded regularly until its final incarnation as Gallerie Poo Poo, they orchestrated distinctive, often byzantine exhibitions of works by their own fluctuating membership alongside work by artists of differing generations. They produced their own tabloid pamphlet lampooning artworld figures and provided a ‘fax-bak’ correction service to ‘improve’ the dreary literature that passes for the gallery press release. A press release issued in 1999 by a prominent gallery in London’s conservative gallery area was met with surprise if not confusion when it announced an exhibition by Bank called ‘Dead Life’. The three – at this time – members of the group had spent months painstakingly executing a collaborative triptych of still lifes in oil on canvas. The dust that had settled over time onto the objects was transferred into the painting and the completed works were glazed and framed to complete the historicising process. They were spot-lit as a trinity in the otherwise dim and empty gallery space. In these works considerable attention has been devoted to the characteristic elements of the genre while the inclusion of contemporary bottle labels, pill packaging and a paint scraper, in place of say a palette, is at least consistent with the evolutionary nature of the still life tradition. The unexpected adoption of the restricted conventions of one of art’s classical genres is not unprecedented and in Bank’s case it is perhaps less perplexing than it may seem. To work in the manner of a seventeenth century master of the table still life is perhaps the least complacent activity that an artist could engage in. If the intention was to question the terms of radical activity, these paintings are the relics of a heroic action.

Still Life, British Council 2000

 

Glossary

  • Canvas

    A piece of cloth woven from flax, hemp or cotton fibres. The word has generally come to refer to any piece of firm, loosely woven fabric used to paint on. Its surface is typically prepared for painting by priming with a ground.

  • Contemporary

    Existing or coming into being at the same period; of today or of the present. The term that designates art being made today.

  • Genre

    In a specialised sense this term refers to the portrayal of everyday life, and refers to painting; more broadly it means the subject types covered by an artist.

    The 17th Century French Academy decreed that there were five main genres an artist should study. These were History, Portrait, Genre, Landscape and Still Life. History was considered the most important as it portrayed Man in his most noblest endeavours and in his relationship with God; Still Life the lowest as it dealt with the moribund and innate.

  • Oil

    A medium in which ground pigments are mixed to produce a paste or liquid that can be applied to a surface by a brush or other tool; the most common oil used by artists is linseed, this can be thinned with turpentine spirit to produce a thinner and more fluid paint. The oil dries with a hard film, and the brightness of the colour is protected. Oil paints are usually opaque and traditionally used on canvas.

  • Painting

    Work of art made with paint on a surface. Often the surface, also called a support, is a tightly stretched piece of canvas, paper or a wooden panel. Painting involves a wide range of techniques and materials, along with the artist's intellectual concerns effecting the content of a work.

  • Triptych

    A work of art comprising three separate sections intended to be seen together. The panels are usually hinged together so that they can be closed like a book. This format was originally devised for portable altarpieces depicting scenes from the Christian Bible.