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Flora Imaginaria

Since antiquity, flowers have been deeply appreciated for their myriad forms and co­lours, their seductive fragrances, their utility in commerce and medicine, their decorative attributes, and their emblematic and symbolic power.

Artists are no exception to this profound attachment. We find flowers everywhere in art, beginning with Paleolithic rock carvings, later with hieroglyphs and mosaics, and later again in paintings, drawings and prints — not to mention their profuse use as decorative motifs in an astonishing variety of materials, from durable stone carvings to the most delicate fabrics.

For the past two centuries, flowers have also bloomed in the fields of photography ! From the very first flower images by Henry Fox Talbot and Anna Atkins in the 1830s, through Man Ray’s, Karl Blossfeldt’s and Imogen Cunningham’s iconic imagery of the 1930s, to the sensual arrangements by Irving Penn, Duane Michals, Sally Mann and Robert Mapplethorpe in the 1970s and 1980s, and to the latest floral studies by well-known contemporaries, magnificent flower photographs are to be found in every period of photographic history, in every movement and in every genre : from documentary and street photography (found flowers), through elaborately arranged flowers in studio work ; from modernism through minimalism, in abstraction and realism, in collage, montage, and a host of experimental approaches. We find flowers in the field of fashion, in portraits and nudes, in landscape practice, and of course in the highly evolved field of botany, but also in conceptual and even political works. Amateur photography also provides a massive field of floral imagery, shared daily by millions via social media.

Flora Imaginaria offers a spectacular bouquet of flower imagery drawn from these sources, made over the past three decades (1990 – 2020).

The exhibition follows a similarly named one of 30 years ago (Flora Photographica), shown first at the Serpentine Gallery in London and subsequently seen in New York, Edinburgh, Toronto, Manchester, Montreal and Vancover.

The extensive tour (and many excellent reviews available on demand) are clear proof of the subject’s popularity.

Specifics

Contents:

The exhibition features 70 to 80 prints from 50 artists, presented both indoors and outdoors, and provide a unique encounter with the artworks in the context of a botanical garden.

Venue list

July 16 - September 25 2022
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December 02 2023 - April 28 2024
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Contact

FEP
Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography
1650 West End Blvd. Suite 100
St. Louis Park, MN 55416
USA
T+1 612 961 1856
T+33 6 62 01 69 87
Einfo@fep-photo.org
FEP
Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography
57 Rue de la Roquette
75011 Paris
France
T+33 6 62 01 69 87
FEP
Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography
Avenue de la Rasude 2
1006 Lausanne
Switzerland
T+41 21 311 17 47
Einfo@fep-photo.org