3 February
–
23 April 2006
Section
2: Looking at BritainJohn Bratby 1928-1992
Still Life with Chip Frier
1954
© Estate of the Artist
The interest in the mundane that characterised Kitchen Sink realism reflected the increasing focus on unglamorous reality in painting, film, theatre and photography in the post-war era. This archetypal social realist painting is a modern still life. In place of the abundant natural produce traditionally found in still life, Bratby presents the modern kitchen with all its contraptions and processed foodstuffs. The bright colours and thick, clotted paint give these everyday objects an emphatic physical presence which verges on the three-dimensional.
