Nature Morte: Contemporary artists reinvigorate the Still-Life tradition

This important, timely book reveals in over 400 illustrations how leading artists of the 21st century have reinvigorated a genre previously synonymous with 16th- and 17th-century Old Masters. These audacious new still lifes will redefine what it means to be a work of nature morte, or ‘dead nature’.

Whether in painting, photography, sculpture or video, contemporary artists have drawn on a tradition ripe with metaphorical and moral significance to create works of conceptual vivacity and striking beauty.

Michael Petry has structured the book according to the classic categories of the still-life tradition – Flora, Food, House and Home, Fauna and Death. Each chapter explores how the timeless symbol of the memento mori – a reminder of death, change and the passing of time – has been rediscovered for a new millennium.

Includes works by:, John Currin, Saara Ekström, Elmgreen & Dragset, Renata Hegyi, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, Gary Hume, McDermott & McGough, Beatriz Milhazes, Gabriel Orozco, Marc Quinn, Sophie Calle, Cy Twombly, Ai Weiwei and many more