We invite you to join us as each curator focuses on a single work of art, exploring both that object and how the object speaks to the collection as a whole, as well as to the chosen theme in particular.
In this first iteration, we examine the notion of still life as it has been treated in artwork across time.
The last Collection Reflection video featured curator Tanya Paul on Jan van Os’s Flowers in Terra-cotta Vase, a traditional eighteenth-century Dutch flower piece. Nikki Otten selected the work she will discuss today, by Odilon Redon, in response to that piece.
A museum’s collection is, by its very nature, carefully organized, its objects categorized by geographic origin, medium, chronology, and other defining characteristics. However, works of art have many qualities that defy these traditional institutional divisions. Through this series of videos, we are examining these broader elements, seeking commonalities and new ways of connecting the works in the Museum’s collection.
See the videos on the other works in this series here.
Nikki Otten is associate curator of prints and drawings. She plans exhibitions and rotations, manages acquisitions, and researches the collection of works on paper from the fifteenth to the twenty-first century.