Life Force - The Still LIfes of Irma Stern

12 Many of Irma Stern’s still life paintings include both fruit and flowers, more often than not in combination with objets d’art from her eclectic collection. Several also contain examples of her own ceramics. In most of these works, Stern arranged fruit nestling in bowls or scattered below unruly bunches of freshly-cut flowers. From time to time, she also sliced open watermelons, paw paws, peaches, even pumpkins to reveal their invitingly fleshy interiors, while in a few works dating to the 1920s and 1930s, casually displayed books seem to suggest the presence of a reader. Stern’s obvious pleasure in producing these richly diverse works is palpably evident from a letter she wrote to her friends, Richard and Freda Feldman in 1942: ‘I am at present painting Compositions around Zinnias – one just a Still life with fruit and yellow Pumpkins – one a Malay woman with Zinnias – … one Zinnias and my morning Coffee set – It may sound dull to you but the latter two are most exciting. I wish it were daytime as I want badly to go on painting.’ 1 Many of Stern’s still life paintings are exuberant descendants of the murals preserved in Pompeii following the sudden eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 ad. Depicting bowls brimming with fruit – an abundance of peaches, apples, grapes, figs – these murals often include common household objects like pitchers and jugs, and staple foods such as loaves of bread. Aptly described by Norman Bryson as the ‘culture of the table’, 2 they celebrate the simple pleasures of daily life. The modern expression of this genre, which first emerged in the 17th century when many artists started producing still life paintings alluding to the transience of life and the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures, also affords many points of reference. But like other 20th century artists who continued to pay homage to this tradition, Stern abandoned the moralizing constraints of this tradition. Painting works that are often vigorously energetic and intensely voluptuous, she chose, instead, to celebrate the lyrical potential of colour and the organic lushness of impasto oils. Throughout her life, Stern returned again and again to the plants that were readily available either in her own garden, or from the flower market in Adderley Street in central Cape Town. Always concerned to preserve spontaneity, her seemingly haphazard arrangement of flowers, fruit, bowls, carpets and other items suggest lack of thought. Clearly, though, Stern remained keenly attentive to the spatial and compositional relationships between the different forms she chose to include in her works. But over time she also grew less interested in markers of place and space, noting in a letter dating to 1950: ‘My new work is most interesting – partly from Life Force: The Still Lifes of Irma Stern Sandra Klopper emeritus professor, university of cape town