Jan Stussy

American
(1921–1990)

Plant Life IV
circa 1950

Oil or acrylic on masonite
35 x 46.25 in.
Gift of The Maxine Kim Stussy Trust
2020.28.2

• abstract - Genre of visual arts in which figurative subjects or other forms are simplified or changed in their representation so that they do not portray a recognizable person, object, thing, etc.; may reference an idea, quality, or state rather than a concrete object. For the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances, prefer "abstraction." For 20th-century art styles that were a reaction against the traditional European conception of art as the imitation of nature, use "Abstract (fine arts style)."
• fruit
• plants
• still lifes - Images in which the focus is a depiction of inanimate objects, as distinguished from art in which such objects are subsidiary elements in a composition.The term is generally applied to depictions of fruit, flowers, meat or dead game, vessels, eating utensils, and other objects, including skulls, candles, and hourglasses, typically arranged on a table. Such images were known since the time of ancient Greece and Rome; however, the subject was exploited by some 16th-century Italian painters, and was highly developed in 17th-century Dutch painting, where the qualities of form, color, texture, and composition were valued, and the images were intended to relay allegorical messages. The subject is generally seen in oil paintings, though it can also be found in mosaics, watercolors, prints, collages, and photographs. The term originally included paintings in which the focus was on living animals at rest, although such depictions would now be called "animal paintings."
• vase