Birne Helene
Reviewed by Charles Dee Mitchell, published on Tuesday, January 19, 2010
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Photographs by Holger Niehaus. Text by Friedrich Meschede.
Van Zoetendaal, , 2009. . 80 pp., 37 four-color illustrations, 12-1/2x9-1/2".
Birne Helene Photographs by Holger Niehaus. Text by Friedrich Meschede. Published by Van Zoetendaal, 2009.
Thoughts on the genre of the still life follow a sad trajectory: abundance - overabundance - excess - vanity - decay - death. The Dutch established themselves as masters of the genre centuries ago, and German photographer Holger Niehaus is the latest to put the "morte" into nature morte. In one image, three white tulips droop languorously against the sides of a tall, slender glass vase. What water lingers in the vase is beyond their reach. A basket arranged with pineapple, grapefruit, oranges, and plums has possibly been left out in the studio over night for vermin to get at. What remains looks like it's been gutted. In a shallow glass bowl, we can see that the banana is overripe. Perhaps the grapes and plums are as well, but there is no question about the sliced grapefruit. Mold already grows on its pink flesh.
I had looked through Niehaus's book several times before I thought to google its title.
Birne helene<-dontlink> is a dessert better known in the States by its French name, poire belle helene. The ingredients are simple - a poached pear, vanilla ice cream, and chocolate sauce. But the presentation is what counts.
Birne Helene, by Holger Niehaus. Published by Van Zoetendaal, 2009.
Birne Helene, by Holger Niehaus. Published by Van Zoetendaal, 2009.
Niehaus presents his still lifes for our queasy delectation. On a single stalk he has grafted six varieties of blossoms. Some flowers he has trimmed with creepy precision to fit perfectly the hard-edged geometry of their container, and he's painted a dead sunflower to give it an unnatural postmortem existence. His masterstroke is to peel his fruit so it looks naked - make that flayed - on a marble slab.
Birne Helene, by Holger Niehaus. Published by Van Zoetendaal, 2009.
Niehaus extends nods to such artists as Malevich, Barnet Newman, and Andy Warhol, but he does not seem too concerned with critiquing anything that has gone before. With this work he takes his place among such consummate photographic aesthetes as Alfred Langdon Coburn, Paul Outerbridge, and Jack Pierson.
—Charles Dee Mitchell
Charles Dee Mitchell is a freelance art writer based in Dallas, Texas. He is a regular contributor to the Dallas Morning News and Art in America.
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