2: Flack's Vanitas
Audrey Flack
Wheel of Fortune (Vanitas), 1977-1978Oil over acrylic on canvas, w96" x h96"
From AudreyFlack.com
The promised example of a 'vanitas' still life painting, with an updated take from the 1970s.
A vanitas painting is, again, about the 'vanity' of indulging in material pleasures — because death is inevitable, so reflect (and, traditionally, repent). What Flack keeps in common with historical vanitas paintings: the realism, and lots of morbid imagery as well as slant-ways morbid imagery about the passage of time. The skull would be the most overt symbol, but you've also got the half-burned candle, an hourglass, some perishable stuff with a little greenery, a glass of wine; some "looks will fade" reminders in the mirrors/lipstick/compact; in more modern touches, a calendar, a photograph, and so on.
What Flack updates, aside from the contemporary objects: first, the size. This thing is 8 FEET square, which is monumental, especially for a genre that was always traditionally kept small (a reflection of its relative 'unimportance' in the genre hierarchy). Second, the realism has taken a turn, because the camera has finally been invented and it's now photorealism; as such, a relationship between the artist, the viewer, and photography will always be part of the content in a way it couldn't have been for those Dutch still life artists. The imagery has also taken on other additional layers of symbolism; for instance, the objects are overtly feminine, and Flack has added touches such as the dice and tarot card, perhaps to speak to a sense of the gambles and random 'fortune' that rule our lives and that we keep trying to control.
Flack's a great artist to look to for other modern spins on the vanitas painting — see for example her Marilyn Monroe paintings, and the little autobiographical touches she adds to a lot of her works. It's also worth considering how her style of handling paint contributes to the overall 'vanitas' feel of certain works; it's all realistic, but there's an extra glossiness and saturation that seems to heighten a sense of excess. You can take a look at all that on her website, because she's yet another artist on here who ain't dead yet (and is in fact still working).