The Art of the Flower: The Floral Still Life from the 17th to the 20th Century - Hardcover

Kunsthalle Bielefeld

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3905514958 ISBN 13: 9783905514957

Publisher: Edition Stemmle, 1996

Synopsis

The "flower piece" has existed as an art genre since the 16th century, but for decades the floral still life was considered unworthy of artists' attention because of its alleged superficiality and bourgeois banality. But now in the nineties, this old motif is enjoying a revival. ART OF THE FLOWER places the genre in its historical perspective.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

The strength of this handsomely illustrated volume, published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany, is in its beautiful color and duotone reproductions, arranged to show how modern floral still-life artists have broken with tradition. In one sequence, a delicate 17th-century painting of a tulip is followed by Helmut Schweizer's series of photographs in which a single tulip is callously destroyed. In another, a vase of golden chrysanthemums by the 19th-century painter Henri Fantin-Latour is placed on a page facing Helen Chadwick's sexually suggestive photograph of yellow flowers arranged in concentric circles on a gelatinous substance and titled "Wreath to Pleasure." In the brief, sometimes opaque, introductory essays, Herzog, chief curator at the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, traces the history of the floral still life from the sumptuous bouquets of 17th-century painters to the contemporary artists' rejection of prettiness in favor of morbid, erotic, unnatural or technological themes. Schneider discusses this art form during the 17th and 18th centuries; and Sachsse treats flower photography.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Edition Stemmle
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 3905514958
• ISBN 13: 9783905514957
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 142
• Editor: Herzog Hans-Michael, Schneider Norbert, Sachsse Rolf