Still life triptych 1889

Editor: Here we have Otto Scholderer's "Still Life Triptych," created in 1889 using pastel and chalk on paper. It strikes me as a really intimate look at domestic life, almost like a faded memory. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Oh, I'm so glad you used the phrase "faded memory." It whispers to me of moments suspended, doesn't it? Scholderer has presented a still life—but disrupted it. A triptych form usually screams religious altarpiece or grand historical scene, yet he uses it for a quiet scene. Look at the ethereal sketches on either side of the main panel! They act like brackets around a secret. Editor: Secret? Curator: Indeed! Those flanking sketches–are they ghostly figures? Forgotten muses? I find myself asking what Scholderer truly intended by framing a domestic scene, a woman amidst her labour, in this somewhat spiritual way? The lines are faint, like trying to recall a half-forgotten song. Does it speak to the value of a single moment, given form? How fleeting but essential all that sustains us is, and all we long for? Editor: I hadn't really noticed how the sketch style seemed so different in each of the three sections, almost like a timeline. The woman in the centre looks much more solid, present. Curator: Precisely! It almost makes you wonder if he's inviting us to contemplate the stages of life or different states of being, from fleeting impressions to tangible realities, doesn't it? A fascinating way to make you contemplate reality and the artistic expression. Editor: That makes me think about how we usually expect a still life to be so…still. But this one feels like it's moving, in more ways than one. Curator: Absolutely. Art is so good at that. Thanks for pointing that out.