Gallery Audio Tour
Grayslake Campus: A-Wing
Jan Miller
Untitled | 1991.19Gr
Audio Tour
In this audio clip the narrator describes Jan Miller's piece.
Narration by: Bill Devore
Length: 0:2:21 (two minutes and twenty-one seconds)
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About the Piece
Untitled, 1982Lithograph; a/p
Number: 1991.20Gr
Gift of Barbara Richardson
Exhibited at CLC: New Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection, 1992
A composition of arranged objects, natural or manmade, is referred to as a still life. Still life became popular in Holland in the mid 1600s, when artists began to paint “breakfast pieces” which depicted common objects found in affluent Dutch homes. In this piece, Jan Miller follows in the tradition of Dutch artists in her sensitive arrangement and rendering of simple everyday objects.
Miller, an Illinois artist, is widely known for her still life paintings. She worked with late master printer Will Peterson at his Plucked Chicken Press in Evanston to make this lithograph.
Martyl studied at Washington University and Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Her work is represented in several major collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. Martyl’s work was exhibited at CLC in New Deal Art, 1988.
Narration Text
A still-life is a work of art depicting inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural (such as food or flowers) or man-made (such as drinking glasses, vases and so on) in an artificial setting. Still-life’s antecedents go all the way back to the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. However, still life came into its own in the new artistic climate of the Netherlands in the 17th century. Images of religious subjects were forbidden in the Dutch Reformed Protestant Church. Hence, artists developed still life, landscape and genre painting. They continued the Northern European tradition of detailed realism and hidden symbols that appealed to the growing Dutch middle classes, who were replacing Church and State as the principal patrons of art (Wikipedia).Jan Miller made a conscious decision early in her career to take this classic genre of still life in a personal direction. Miller, predominantly a painter, delved into printmaking in the early 1990s while working with the late master printer Will Peterson. This lithograph departs from the Dutch manner by depicting objects larger than life. Miller has woven personal objects from around her home into a tightly organized composition. The pale yellow table cloth has a fold that divides the picture in two. This symmetry is counter-balanced by her arrangement of the vessels and white linens. The cups and pots are in a pyramid-like formation that culminates in the tall, dark pitcher that is off-center. The eye is further directed to the right by the cast shadow on the wall. Miller uses the small, tear drop shaped pitcher on the left as a counter-point. It breaks away from the pyramid design and the vessel’s reflective surface holds the eye for a few beats. The muted colors of the work also harkens back to the Dutch period. (Miller, paraphrased)
Though Miller now lives in Florida, she used to be in the Chicago area. Not surprisingly, she sold many of her works near Holland, Michigan.
Written by Steven Jones, Curator, Robert T. Wright Gallery, College of Lake County.
Works cited:
Miller, Jan. Jan Miller. 2008. 14 October, 2008.
