Apples by Fredrick Adler

We look upon a remarkably minimalist still life—sixteen apples upon a wooden board or table—but by the time of Adler's painting they were highly charged objects due to the thousands of minimally employed apple vendors on New York streets during the Great Depression. Keeping this in mind, we see an insistence upon each apple being represented individually, and for that matter each row of wood laminated into the wooden board. Adler's light and colors are direct, with very little shadow.