Eric Wert: Still Life

Eric Wert’s flowers, fruits, and vegetables are the stuff of a florist’s or farmer’s perfection—objects of incomparable beauty, hyperrealistic, radiant, and arranged in a tumult that’s filled with life. Within this bounty, the artist also recognizes the realities of the garden, forest, and field: snails, slugs, and ants; ladybugs, bees, and butterflies; leaves that decay, petals that fall, fruits that bruise, and vegetables that scar. Wert’s compositions also exist within the tradition of still life, taking cues from masters such as Rachel Ruysch, Henri Fantin-Latour, Ambrosius Bosschaert, and more. His backdrops—intricate tapestries rendered with historical accuracy—support each disheveled bouquet and overflowing centerpiece in form, color, and mood. Eric Wert: Still Life chronicles the artist’s rise to maturity, from otherworldly graphite drawings of cacti to the stunning oil paintings he is now known for. In essays, critic Richard Speer details Wert’s artistic evolution, and longtime friend Shawn Vandor places Wert’s art within a wider academic and cultural context. Finally, the artist details his meticulous process, providing a rare peek at the way these dripping, tumbling, tangled, restless depictions of flowers and produce are made.

Eric Wert

In his Portland, Oregon, studio, Eric Wert (American, b. 1976) creates still lifes that are the hyperrealistic stuff of dreams. In a veritable flood of sensual detail, he pulls the genre out of the Dutch Golden Age. Wert honed his observation skills as a scientific illustrator at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. Before long he broke away to create oil paintings of flowers, fruits, and vegetables that defy traditional constraints. He uses stunning jewel tones to depict decadent subject matter, with natural and manmade objects arranged as a tumultuous comment on the wonders of life and death. Bees, butterflies, snakes, and other critters find their place in Wert’s work—a modern master’s complex observation of natural mysteries.