‘I think the element of timelessness is really fascinating with painting because there's so much tradition attached to it.’ Nicolas Party
First revealed during Nicolas Party’s MFA degree auction at the Glasgow School of Art, Still Life is a stunning early example of the artist’s experimentation with the genre of still life, as well as a wonderful materialization of his ability to suffuse life in inanimate objects. Devised in warm, earthy tones, the painting combines clear figurative delineations with passages of abstraction, exemplified by the thick diagonal white line resting against the prevalent jug, and the chromatically divided background, revealing exquisite off-white and carmine areas. Rising higher than the central object’s typical size, Still Life furthermore demonstrates Party’s playfulness with scale and desire to represent the timeless volume of the object – themes which he continually explores throughout his painterly and sculptural practice. Consistently employing a geometric formal language, specifically defined by cubes, cylinders, cones, spheres and pyramids, Party creates a hierarchy of shapes which result in powerful paintings, which are at once familiar and surreal.
The weight of Party’s visual lexicon is exquisitely and holistically incorporated in this early Still Life; the pot at the centre of the composition transcends both time and place in its liminal space. Deeply interested in the physical nature of objects and landscape, whether fruit, pots or trees, Party’s visual language taps into recognizable and tangible shapes rendered in evocative, bright hues. Incorporating sculptural elements into both his compositions and physical installations, Party’s work draws upon the classical architecture of temples and churches, namely the Convent of San Marco by Fra Angelico in Florence; the geometric curvature of the close arches intrinsic to these religious buildings are evident in his still lifes and landscapes. Party first began experimenting with painting at the age of 12, when he and his friends would apply graffiti on the walls of their hometown Lausanne, Switzerland, travelling Europe to expand their urban craft. During his MFA at the Glasgow School of Art, he would continue to exploit the collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of art by responding to fellow artists’ work by painting directly onto walls, frames and plinths, as well as creating immersive installations using a variety of media, like stone, ceramic and wood. The timelessness of representation, from Egyptian pottery to traditional Swiss landscape painting to Magritte’s surrealist compositions, are immediately recognizable in his sculptural and painterly renderings, where the curves of the teapot echo the masterfully crafted arcs of artisans throughout history, giving the central object it’s volumetric appearance.
In Still Life, Party draws on not only architecture but the canon of still life compositions executed painterly masters from Paul Cézanne to Giorgio Morandi. Party explains, ‘I paint still lifes and I often paint pots; Morandi is a great source of inspiration’ (the artist, quoted in conversation with Jesse Wine, ‘Apples and Pairs’, Frieze, no. 175, November -December 2015.) Summoning art historical references as varied as Jean-Baptiste-Siméone Chardin to David Hockney – whilst at the same time incorporating hints of lightness, surrealism and humour, Party states, ‘For me, the most important lesson from Morandi is how to focus. His paintings are telling us: there are no bottles outside of the frame, so concentrate on looking at the ones in the picture. It’s a very difficult exercise to look at an object with a great deal of attention – to look only with your eyes and try to forget what you are looking at’. (the artist, quoted in conversation with Jesse Wine, ‘Apples and Pairs’, Frieze, no. 175, November -December 2015.) Imbued with expertly honed techniques passed down throughout the painterly tradition, the present work showcases Party’s mastery of oil painting in his own unique style.