Still- life as a curatorial idea sparked off from a casual encounter with a suite of paintings in the Delhi Art Gallery collection. A close examination of these works brought to fore the varied representations and adaptations of the theme for over a century by Indian artists who were introduced to Still-Life paintings by the British colonial system of art education. The works at hand allowed for a brief historical survey of the genre, from its early adaptations to its modernist experiments, and get personalised enough to take on symbolic, surreal and conceptual transformations. Taught as an academic genre along with Portraiture and Life Study at the art schools established mainly in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras in the later half of the 19th century, it was initiated as a classroom exercise, pursued later as ‘studio compositions’ by artists. The introduction of easel painting and the medium of oil, and its special ability to render the tangibility, the texture, lustre and solidity of what it depicted challenged artists to acquire enviable skills to create the illusion in the spectator as if he or she were looking at real objects and materials.The consistent drill equipped the artists to evoke the sense of touch through the purely visual.

There have been very few exhibitions on Still life in India. The only one that I can easily recollect was curated by late Santo Datta for Art Motif some years back, but the curatorial narrative was not based on a historical survey but asking artists to do fresh works with still life as a subject. Hence the curatorial intention was different. The intention here in part is a brief historical survey through the select paintings as well as an interpretation of them examining the shifts in their concept and expression. In that sense, this exhibition seems a singular initiative that aligns itself to the thematic viewing of still lifes through the 20th century.