Contextual statement:
Hospitals, for many, have negative associations, and conjure up images of endless corridors and stark, functional interiors. Having worked as a pharmacist in this clinical environment over a number of years I have found myself, every now and then drawn to some unassuming object of great visual interest or unexpected beauty.
The genre of the ‘still life’ is one of the oldest of artistic traditions, although its place of importance in the realm of fine art has varied over the centuries. Commonplace domestic vessels were often the subject matter, which were always deliberately arranged. Giorgio Morandi was a 20th century Italian painter of such scenes. Of his work the art critic Laura Cumming writes,
‘It is not impossible to make humble objects seem mesmerising and vital: Chardin and Cézanne had this gift, and Morandi learned from them both. But his exacting observations of the world around him – outside as well as in... produced something altogether new. This is the idea that every relationship in a still life, and even in a landscape, could be psychologically thrilling.’[1]
Secundum Artem is a latin phrase meaning literally ‘according to the art or practice’. In the context of pharmaceutical compounding, to make a product secundum artem is to prepare it according to the skills and knowledge in which one is trained.[2]
In this series I offer the viewer a new ‘way of seeing’in the clinical space – that according to the artist.
[1]Laura Cumming is an art critic and writer for The Observer, London http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2013/jan/13/morandi-lines-poetry-review-giorgio 18/4/2013
[2] http://www.usciences.edu/museum/secundum_artem.shtml 18/4/2013
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