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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 22, 2008
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Leeann Lavin: 718-623-7289, leeannlavin@bbg.org
Kate Blumm: 718-623-7241, kateblumm@bbg.org
Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society Presents
Portraits of a Garden IV
35 New Works Illustrating the Garden's Living Collections
Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery
Saturday, September 13, 2008 – Sunday, November 30, 2008
George Olson, Cephalanthus occidentalis, 2008. Watercolor and pencil on paper. © Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Brooklyn, NY—August 22, 2008—Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society presents Portraits of a Garden IV, an exhibition of new work at Brooklyn Botanic Garden's (BBG) Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery, Saturday, September 13, 2008, through Sunday, November 30, 2008. This is the sixth public exhibition by the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society, which has previously presented three biennials at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, well as additional exhibitions in Manhattan and Berlin.
Portraits of a Garden is the Florilegium Society's fourth biennial of never-before-exhibited art, and features 35 paintings and drawings of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's living collections by 29 artists. From late winter's skunk cabbage in the Native Flora Garden to spring's signature magnolias, 'Kanzan' cherries, and bluebell wood to the bonsai, cola tree, and South African bulbs that are highlights of the conservatories in winter, Florilegium Society artists explore the cycle of seasons at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
The exciting new exhibition is distinguished by work that is exceptionally fresh and unconventional. For example, Margaret Farr and Monika de Vries Gohlke capture the spirit of time and place in their exuberant plant portraits. Farr's branch of the shamelessly flouncy 'Kanzan' cherry is showered with falling pink petals—the essence of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Cherry Esplanade at its peak moment—and de Vries Gohlke's single, luminous Spanish bluebell is accompanied by a small landscape of the enchanted Bluebell Wood, painted as if it were a photo mounted in a scrapbook—an allusion to all the visitors who take home souvenir photos of Bluebell Wood. The artist has captured the sublime experience of the intense blues when light slants through the oak trees in mid-spring. Derek Norman's delicate drawing in pen and ink shows the curious skunk cabbage emerging from a duff of oak leaves, its minimal and essential line reminiscent of Ellsworth Kelly's 1992 lithograph project, Series of Oak Leaves. Rose Pellicano's muscular painting of the architectural mahonia is worlds apart: The curator describes it as a design suitable for a lunette in a Renaissance palazzo.
The curator of the collection, BBG director of Library Services Patricia Jonas, explained, "Several volunteers and I collaborate with the 45 Florilegium Society artists to select plants to be illustrated, and then collect specimens for the artists and for the BBG Herbarium." She added, "Many artists also choose to visit and study the plants in situ, but all of them draw from these specimens to create the unique and compelling Portraits of a Garden. This growing collection is one measure of the influence of artists in the United States on botanical art, which has become a necessary art in a time of increased attention to and concern with the living environment."
Artists represented in the exhibition are Francesca Anderson, Harriet Carotenuto, John Cody, Christina Davis, Monika de Vries Gohlke, Nan Dedrick, Jean Emmons, Margaret Farr, Carol Hamilton, Gertrude Hamilton, Paul Harwood, Wendy Hollender, Gina Ingoglia, Judith Kunhardt, Libby Kyer, Dianne McElwain, Angela Mirro, Kate Nessler, Derek Norman, George Olson, Rose Pellicano, Kelly Leahy Radding, Dick Rauh, Eleanor Lea Rohrbaugh, Mary Ryniec, Manabu Saito, Constance Sayas, Jessica Tcherepnine, and Catherine Watters.
The Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society was founded in 2000 by Francesca Anderson, Gina Ingoglia, and BBG director emeritus Elizabeth Scholtz and has since become a model for other such societies around the world. The Society's mission is to paint Brooklyn Botanic Garden's living collections and advance the appreciation of botanical art. The art is part of BBG's permanent collection and is housed in the Library's Rare Book Room. The curator is Patricia Jonas, director of Library Services. The Society is dedicated to creating a unique document of Brooklyn Botanic Garden's living collections. With 173 works donated to date, Florilegium Society members from near and far have made an impressive start on representing the more than 10,000 kinds of plants growing at Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
The exhibit is free with Garden admission. Gallery talks with the curator and artists will be on September 20, 2008, at 2:30 p.m. and on October 18, 2008, at 2:00 p.m.