Bone, Cup and Crab Apple

Bruce Kurland, Bone, Cup and Crab Apple, 1972, oil on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.94
Copied Bruce Kurland, Bone, Cup and Crab Apple, 1972, oil on fiberboard, 8 1⁄8 x 10 in. (20.6 x 25.4 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation, 1986.6.94

Artwork Details

Title
Bone, Cup and Crab Apple
Artist
Date
1972
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
8 1⁄8 x 10 in. (20.6 x 25.4 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of the Sara Roby Foundation
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on fiberboard
Classifications
Subjects
  • Still life — fruit — apple
  • Animal — other — skeleton
  • Still life — other — dish
Object Number
1986.6.94
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1986.6.94

Artwork Description

Bruce Kurland painted tiny still lifes of birds, flowers, fruit, game, and sometimes the debris of contemporary life (beer cans, Coke bottles). His choice of subject matter and the consummate realism of his technique reflected a fascination with Chardin and the Dutch still-life tradition in which ordinary objects take on symbolic significance. In Bone, Cup and Crab Apple, Kurland placed aging objects---a wilting crab apple, a bone with dried sinew, and a chipped, rusted cup---in the center of the panel. Like the memento mori of seventeenth-century Dutch painting, this small panel speaks to the passage of time and the precariousness of life.


Modern American Realism: The Sara Roby Foundation Collection, 2014
Luce Center Label

Bruce Kurland painted this still life while he was living in the town of Curriers in Wyoming County, New York. He felt that the city offered dismal prospects for a representational painter and moved to the countryside, where he painted images that focused on simple objects "being revealed by light." Here, the dried bone, shriveled crab apple, and rusty cup emphasize the transformation of both natural and manmade materials over time. The dark, empty background highlights the delicacy and transitory nature of these strange objects.

Exhibitions

Media - 1986.6.100 - SAAM-1986.6.100_2 - 135134
Modern American Realism: Highlights from the Sara Roby Foundation Collection
Smithsonian American Art Museum
This exhibition presents some of the most treasured paintings and sculpture from SAAM’s permanent collection, including artworks by Will Barnet, Isabel Bishop, Paul Cadmus, Edward Hopper, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Jacob Lawrence, George Tooker, among others.