Still Life with Grapefruits 1954

Curator: Audrey Flack's "Still Life with Grapefruits," painted in 1954. It’s an early example of her exploration of abstract expressionism using oil paints. What strikes you initially about this work? Editor: There’s a vibrancy despite the muted palette, an almost dizzying swirl of impasto. I get the sense of a fleeting moment captured. It is also reminiscent of flower paintings. Curator: Indeed, although painted as a still life it evokes those same sensory associations, playing with the conventions of the genre. Flack, who would become known for her photorealistic paintings of the 1960s and 70s, worked against this current of representation earlier in her career. Abstract Expressionism opened doors to challenging painting traditions. Editor: Considering the materiality, the way the paint is applied, gives us access to the physical act of making. You can almost feel her arm move across the canvas, piling and smearing pigment. Was this about escaping the societal expectations for women artists? Curator: That's a valid perspective. Many female artists, who were mostly confined to domestic subjects, like still life and portraits, were able to finally take centre stage through non-representational forms of art. "Still Life with Grapefruits" demonstrates Flack testing these conventions within that evolving social environment. Editor: I'm interested in this dance between the gestural and the recognizable. We have those vibrant grapefruits as the stated subject, yet the way the artist lays down the paint seems to eclipse traditional expectations of skill. Was painting like this, breaking free from convention, truly accepted at the time? Curator: Abstract expressionism did face criticism, deemed by some as too radical. However, artists like Flack pushed back and found strength in material abstraction in opposition to conventional taste and academia. It provided avenues for expressing ideas and emotions in novel ways. Editor: So this isn't just a bowl of fruit, but a testament to artistic liberation, of working to escape conventions using only oil paint? Curator: Absolutely, and its dynamism, both visually and historically, resonates with a continued negotiation of art's boundaries. Editor: It's more layered and complicated than it looks, a painting embodying those societal shifts through form and brushstroke.