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Thumbnail-size images of copyrighted artworks are displayed under fair use, in accordance with guidelines recommended by the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts, published by the College Art Association in February 2015.
The Mignon Grotto
2020
Medium/Technique
Acrylic on panel
Dimensions
Height x width: 10.2 × 17.8 cm (4 × 7 in.)
Credit Line
Beth Munroe Fund—Bequest of Emma F. Munroe
Accession Number2020.505
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsContemporary Art
ClassificationsMiniatures
Nicole’s work was on display at the Shelter in Place Gallery between April 21-24, 2020. The Museum acquired Shelter in Place with two examples of artists’ work that were shown while the gallery was live in artist Eben Haines’ home. Nicole is one of these artists.
Nicole Duennebier received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Maine College of Art with a major in painting. Her BFA thesis work was most influenced by research into the coastal ecosystems of Maine. In 2006 she was awarded the Monhegan Island Artists Residency. On the island she continued her work with sea life, and perceived a natural connection between the darkness and intricacy of undersea regions and the aesthetic of 16th-century Dutch still-life painting.
In 2008 Duennebier moved to the Boston area, and now lives and works in Malden. She is a 2016 Massachusetts Cultural Council Painting Fellow and her work can be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and New Britain Museum of American Art. In 2020, she was featured in a solo exhibition, Pushing Painting, at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University.
Her work relishes natural phenomena—dermoid cysts, fungus, invasive flora/fauna—and she has a love of what she terms “candied, old-master opulence.” Her painstakingly detailed approach to painting nature reveals it was imperfect even as she uses the language of idealized still life. In her words, “anything living really, never totally allows you to have a perfectly idealized experience. Everything is always spewing, dripping, rotting a little. Similar to 17th century still-life paintings with those vibrant lusty fruits that show the light fuzz of beginning decay, I don’t see these works as allegorical depictions. To me it is more the realization that both the rot and the fruit are a textural attraction in their delicacy; both take the same concentration and care to paint. The classic chiaroscuro darkness in still-life is a primordial soup, a pool of black that springs forth a decadent, and sometimes horrible, growth.”
In addition to this work’s connection to the incoming acquisition of Shelter in Place Gallery, there are obvious connections to European still life paintings held in the MFA’s collection.
Nicole Duennebier received her Bachelor of Fine Arts at Maine College of Art with a major in painting. Her BFA thesis work was most influenced by research into the coastal ecosystems of Maine. In 2006 she was awarded the Monhegan Island Artists Residency. On the island she continued her work with sea life, and perceived a natural connection between the darkness and intricacy of undersea regions and the aesthetic of 16th-century Dutch still-life painting.
In 2008 Duennebier moved to the Boston area, and now lives and works in Malden. She is a 2016 Massachusetts Cultural Council Painting Fellow and her work can be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and New Britain Museum of American Art. In 2020, she was featured in a solo exhibition, Pushing Painting, at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University.
Her work relishes natural phenomena—dermoid cysts, fungus, invasive flora/fauna—and she has a love of what she terms “candied, old-master opulence.” Her painstakingly detailed approach to painting nature reveals it was imperfect even as she uses the language of idealized still life. In her words, “anything living really, never totally allows you to have a perfectly idealized experience. Everything is always spewing, dripping, rotting a little. Similar to 17th century still-life paintings with those vibrant lusty fruits that show the light fuzz of beginning decay, I don’t see these works as allegorical depictions. To me it is more the realization that both the rot and the fruit are a textural attraction in their delicacy; both take the same concentration and care to paint. The classic chiaroscuro darkness in still-life is a primordial soup, a pool of black that springs forth a decadent, and sometimes horrible, growth.”
In addition to this work’s connection to the incoming acquisition of Shelter in Place Gallery, there are obvious connections to European still life paintings held in the MFA’s collection.
Provenance2020, sold by the artist to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 16, 2020)