Survivals

Luigi Lucioni was known for his extraordinary ability to realistically depict a wide variety of textures and natural and manmade materials both in his landscapes and still lifes. Here, he demonstrates this skill to its fullest, painting an array of diverse objects, including cloth-bound books, dried fruit, and a terracotta vessel. The title—which Lucioni also used the same year for an etching of a dilapidated Vermont barn—refers to how things can change yet survive through the passage of time. In a 1971 interview, Lucioni discussed his views on realism, stating, “My idea of realism is not what you see, but it’s to create what there is in reality.”