Still Life 1928

Russell Green made this still life print around the middle of the twentieth century. Its arrangement of commonplace objects invites us to look at how artists were negotiating the relationship between modernism and tradition. The print bears witness to an engagement with cubist ideas of abstraction, yet the subject matter feels deeply rooted in the history of Western art. Here we have a traditional still life composition, but the image creates meaning through its visual codes, cultural references, and historical associations, making it a very self-conscious piece. Green probably made the artwork in Britain where he was born. He would have been influenced by two world wars and his art is a comment on the social structures of its time. To fully understand the image, we would need to look at the institutional histories of art schools during this time. This example reminds us of the role art historians can play in interpreting art by undertaking this type of research to understand the meaning of art as contingent on social and institutional context.