Somewhere along the way the still life became widely perceived as unexciting. Perhaps that’s because they hang in museums all over the world. Or perhaps it’s because they are so somberly still, which makes us think of death (in fact, many of them are a type of memento mori). The Pallant House Gallery wants this to change. Presenting pieces by modern and contemporary British artists, its latest exhibition shows the genre’s ability to test boundaries and challenge societal ideas through symbolism. “The Shape of Things” moves from 17th-century paintings to Post-Impressionism, Pop, and Conceptual art, and features works by Lucian Freud, David Hockney, Lee Miller, Clare Woods, and more. “Abstraction at first looked as though it was going to lead everything,” Hockney said in a 2022 New Yorker interview, “but it doesn’t, does it?” —Jeanne Malle