STILL LIFES
Hommage to Balthasar van der Ast
In the 17th century, still lifes were an expression and stylistic means of depicting personal wealth and flourishing global trade relations. Exoticism was an expression of the wealth acquired through trade. Only this made it possible for a broader mass, the bourgeoisie, to commission individual works of art.
Exotic flowers such as tulips or lilies were among the subjects depicted, as were rare shells and sea snails or magnificent butterflies. Both beauty and transience are inherent in these motifs as symbolism. Butterflies embody beauty and renewal, the splendour and rarity of exotic flowers refer to the earthly wealth of their owner.
Ellena Scheufler is particularly interested in this first-time depiction of this clash of European culture and exoticism, which still seems to be topical today in a global world with migration and culture clashes. In the series Still Lifes she deliberately limits herself—completely in the tradition of the Dutch painters Van der Ast, Bosschaert or Adriaen Coorte—on the image of nature.
By transferring the old subjects into the present day with the help of photography, Scheufler gives the motifs a further, ambivalent level. With the knowledge about the state of the world
and the ecological and economic problems, new possibilities of association arise for the viewer. Tulips from greenhouses have become mass goods and affordable for everyone—at the same time hundreds of animal and plant species disappear every year. And the vanitas idea of
yesteryear? Has long since been caught up by reality. But what is depicted remains: While a tulip remains a tulip, the original symbolic context dissolves and is read anew today.
Painterly photography or photographic painting? Is it possible to use the modern technical
medium of photography, with pixels and optics, to create moods like the masters of the
17th century? To paint with light and yet to depict more detailed and more lifelike than any artist of the "Golden Age“?
The series Still Lifes is a hommage to the artists of the Netherlands in the 17th century—400 years after Balthasar van der Ast.
ELLENA SCHEUFLER
Ellena Scheufler (*1967) studied fashion design at the University of Applied Sciences of Bielefeld. Work stations led her to Paris to Karl Lagerfeld, among others. She worked for many years as a trend scout and designer. She has been working on her first photo series Still Lifes since 2017. Ellena Scheufler lives in Düsseldorf.