Still Life

A bust of the ancient deity Apollo, a violin, a pair of paint brushes and a mask, all paraphernalia of the arts are coated in a subdued colour palette favoured by Cubist artists Picasso and Braque in Still Life. The influence of Cubism is evident in this painting, especially in Lin Fengmian's angular treatment of forms and the vertical displacement of objects, creating many conflicting diagonal accents in order to break up the unified perspectival space. Lin also uses the overlapping of colours to undermine perspective. For example, one of the leaves of the laurels on Apollo's head is drawn over the bar of the window, creating a colour area that partially escapes the boundary line, suggesting continuity beneath it while the illusion of three dimensional space is undermined to some degree, emphasizing the flatness of the canvas.
Although Lin's works are very much influenced by western artistic styles, his paintings are always distinctively Chinese. The use of black in Still Life for structuring is Chinese in character, defining the shape of objects, dividing space with the simple lines and creating contrast for light effects. Lin's interest in light effects is most evident in his still life paintings. He likes to suggest light coming from behind the depicted objects, which gives the painting a certain atmosphere unique to the artist. The combination of Cubist style and the still life genre makes Still Life a very rare painting in the artist's oeuvre.