(Nothing but) Flowers
Hilton Als author Helen Molesworth author David Rimanelli author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Karma
Published:26th May '22
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An opulent, joyful homage to the many ways of painting flowers, from Charles Burchfield to Amy Sillman “Flowers are always working in the service of the passage of time,” writes Helen Molesworth in the opening pages of (Nothing but) Flowers. “In all of the paintings in this book where flowers are depicted, innocently standing in their vases, the minor gestures of gathering, arranging and display can be seen as a verb list dedicated to world-building.” This clothbound volume gathers paintings of flowers by more than 50 artists from Charles Burchfield to Amy Sillman, Joe Brainard to Lisa Yuskavage, who have explored the perennial appeal of this richest and yet simplest of subjects. (Nothing but) Flowers demonstrates the capacity of the humble botanical motif to capture sorrow, stimulate rehabilitation, and guide us through periods of mourning, celebration and rebirth. Writers Hilton Als, Helen Molesworth and David Rimanelli contribute meditations on the many resonances of flowers in art. Artists include: Gertrude Abercrombie, Marina Adams, Henni Alftan, Ed Baynard, Nell Blaine, Dike Blair, Vern Blosum, Joe Brainard, Cecily Brown, Charles Burchfield, Matt Connors, Andrew Cranston, Ann Craven, Stephanie Crawford, Somaya Critchlow, Verne Dawson, Lois Dodd, Peter Doig, Nicole Eisenman, Ida Ekblad, Minnie Evans, Marley Freeman, Jane Freilicher, Mark Grotjahn, James Harrison, Lubaina Himid, Samuel Hindolo, Reggie Burrows Hodges, Max Jansons, Ernst Yohji Jaeger, Sanya Kantarovsky, Alex Katz, Karen Kilimnik, Zenzaburo Kojima, Matvey Levenstein, Shannon Cartier Lucy, Calvin Marcus, Helen Marden, Jeanette Mundt, Soumya Netrabile, Woody De Othello, Sanou Oumar, Jennifer Packer, Nicolas Party, Hilary Pecis, Richard Pettibone, Elizabeth Peyton, Amy Sillman, Elaine Sturtevant, Tabboo!, Honor Titus, Uman, Susan Jane Walp, Stanley Whitney, Jonas Wood, Matthew Wong, Albert York, Manoucher Yektai and Lisa Yuskavage.
Standout works included Peter Doig’s luscious oil painting of a lemon branch in bloom, Shannon Cartier Lucy’s hyper-real painting of ribbon-adorned daffodils and Amy Sillman’s delicate pansy acrylics. For those who missed the show, a catalogue of the works is now available, enriched with texts. -- Baya Simmons * Financial Times *
[A] range of botanical imagery; abstracted, representational, pensive, airy. Blooms and vegetation appear across picture planes, occasionally as props rather than primary subjects. Some buds are worn away by a process of painterly attrition; others are impossibly precise and well-tended. Pansies inhabit the works of Ann Craven and Joe Brainard, while lovelorn roses bloom and burst across the canvases of Karen Kilimnik and Zenzaburo Kojima. Each arrangement is alive with personality: their biodiverse botanical subjects offer ciphers for people, places, and sentiments. * Spike Art *
(Nothing but) Flowers is wildly diverse; it defies summary or generalization. Its utter vitality demands direct experience. -- Alfred Mac Adam * Brooklyn Rail *
[T]he flow and the syncopation of images, delivers almost as much pleasure as the paintings themselves. -- Andrea K. Scott * New Yorker *
Flowers of every size, shape, and color are a'bloom... -- Caroline Goldstein * Artnet *
(Nothing but) Flowers ... is actually quite profound, inspiring in its inclusiveness and liberating in its pleasures. Its message is simple but deep: Artists must do what they must do — which means anything and nothing else. -- Roberta Smith * New York Times *
ISBN: 9781949172515
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
464 pages