“The Artist’s Garden American Impressionism and the Garden Movement” edited by Anna O. Marley
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia C 2014
Tracing the connection of garden and art is the just released book The Artist’s Garden, American Impressionism and the Garden Movement, edited by Anna O. Marley, focused on the period 1887-1920.This collection of essays was published to accompany the art exhibition of the same name which will open Feb. 13, 2015, in Philadelphia at the Academy of Fine Arts. The 91 full color plates show the images in the exhibition and the text details the significance of these art works to American gardens. This book connects the elements of social history, art and gardeners in a relationship which still exists today. Particularly in painting artists were guilty of painting the roses larger and more perfect than reality and photographers artfully framed the view to include just the best bits of a garden, these actions greatly influence our perceptions of how a garden should be. Art would be significantly poorer with out the beauty of flowers and our own gardens would lack inspiration without art.
The exhibition will travel to three additional venues:
Chrysler Museum of Art,Norfolk, VA
June 16 – September 6, 2015
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC
October 1, 2015 – January 3, 2016
The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA
January 23 – May 9, 2016