Left:The Hand that whirls the Water in the Pool,2018, 247 x 85 cm, right:Eyes Can See, 2012, 145 x 107 cm
Margriet Smulders makes monumental photographs, precisely constructed art forms, we categorise as ’still-lives’.
Art History describes 'floral still-lives’ as a 17th Century art category of especially Dutch and Flemish painters, often epitomized by ‘the vase of flowers’.
Flowers symbolise virtue and transience. Margriet Smulders’ ‘carpe-diem’ motive: sublime beauty and ultimate mortality. (Bart Rutte in his openinspeech, 13 September 2019)