Allegory of the five senses

About Kevin Best

BAROQUE GRANDEUR EVERLASTING BEAUTIES In no era was the still life more important than the seventeenth century. Numerous types of still lifes emerged, which were to appeal to and stimulate viewers’ sensory perception. The genre’s earliest form was the banketjes, or banquet still lifes. An arranged table, covered with culinary specialties, fine vessels, and luxurious textiles, took the

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

BAROQUE GRANDEUR
EVERLASTING BEAUTIES

In no era was the still life more important than the seventeenth century. Numerous types of still lifes emerged, which were to appeal to and stimulate viewers’ sensory perception.

The genre’s earliest form was the banketjes, or banquet still lifes. An arranged table, covered with culinary specialties, fine vessels, and luxurious textiles, took the foreground in this type of image. Still life masters hoped to achieve the most realistic depiction possible; it was their goal to create the perfect illusion. Photographer Kevin Best now turns the process on its head. With his studies he captures the atmosphere that must have reigned in his forerunners’ ateliers. With meticulousness and a love of detail, Best quotes Dutch still life painters from Holland and Flanders, in particular Pieter Claesz, David Bailly and Willem Kalf, whose pictures he sets up true to the originals. He interprets the Old Masters in a modern manner. At first glance his compositions have the same effect as those of the Old Masters, but a closer look reveals the image as photographic, modifying the traditional mode of observation with an ironic twist.

VITA

1960	born in Arlington, New Zealand
1980-2000	Creative Director ARN/Take 2, Australia
2000-2009	Executive Group Creative Director Austereo, Australia
2007-2009	study of  photography, Australian Centre for Photography, Paddington, Australia
2008	Project  Gingko Bacchus Restaurant,  Chengdu, China  (collaboration with GRAFT Architects)
	lives and works in in Paddington, Australia