This week’s travel theme at Where’s My Backpack? is ancient. I was at the St. Louis Art Museum this past week for a special exhibit where I saw this painting and a floral interpretation of it:
ISO 1600 10mm 0ev f/4.5 1/15
The painting is Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion by John Martin, painted in 1812. The floral arrangement is by Ivy Baebler of the Federated Garden Clubs of MO. To be honest, I wasn’t sure what I was going to think of this exhibit before I went. It turns out, I really liked it. Of course, because the flowers fade quickly, it is an exhibit that lasts only a few days and is very crowded. The difficulty in shooting something like this starts with those crowds. I was also kind of surprised at the number of people who were touching the flowers. I guess to me it just seemed like the floral arrangements were created works of art and touching them would potentially mess up the composition. That aside, it was hard for my point and shoot to capture all the detail of both the floral work and the painting. I tried though, just to give the feel of the exhibit.
Have you ever been to an exhibit like this? I’ll admit I hadn’t.
Cheers!
Photography Journal Blog 
Wow. Interesting. I hadn’t heard about this exhibit, but then again, I’ve been sick with the flu. I agree, that it is odd that people would touch the flowers if they are part of the art exhibit.
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Sorry to hear you have been under the weather, hope you are feeling better soon. This was the first year I was aware of it, but I guess it is over one weekend a year. I was glad I took the time to go.
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Beautiful photo and I too am surprised by people touching the flowers.
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Thanks. I guess as I was watching them do it I was thinking that perhaps they weren’t really thinking? What they all seemed to have in common was that they were very absorbed in looking at the arrangement they were looking at and it was often one person touching and the others were discussing what type of flower it was. So they came across as really passionate about their flowers, perhaps to a fault 🙂
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I like the angle you took. It’s always challenging to take photos in a crowded place, especially in a museum or gallery!
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Thanks, it was really crowded.
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Interesting! I went to an exhibit of floral arrangements and corresponding works of art at the Detroit Institute of Art last June. It was easier to make a connection between them, because the pieces were from different cultures, and the floral arrangements reflected that. I really enjoyed it. Beautiful photo of the exhibit. Thanks for sharing.
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That sounds like an interesting way to handle it as well. I would have liked to see that as well 🙂
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Fascinating!
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It really was 🙂
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The exhibition is really lovely, and you captured it perfectly, Amy. I guess people were touching the flowers to check whether they were real, or artificial. 🙂
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Perhaps, I was thinking that since it is a known live flower exhibit that features many local floral groups, these are people who are really passionate about the quality of their flowers 🙂
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well I really enjoyed this post – and I am “mixed” on the touching of the flowers part. Like in a way, I think it is cool (if it was allowed by the artist that is) and a while ago I saw a documentary about art collectors in Florida who let people (highly encouraged) visitors to touch their art – and they had some expensive pieces. I agreed with the whole experience they valued – and in a private collection it is doable – but if museums allowed it – well the pieces would be destroyed – and worn away over time.
anyhow, this was so interesting to see a floral take on that painting. I loved the painting from the start – and only after a few views did I really get the floral connection (maybe my head is thick!) – but it took some time for me to see the connections and then it was like, “yeah….nice job” – especially the red flower for that man on the rock.
~y.
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I was wondering about that as well, if the artists knew that their work was being touched and how they felt about it. I do have to say that at one point one of the artists was standing near her work and no one was touching it then. As far as making the connection between the flowers and the art, it was a mixed bag for me. This one, I feel like I just “got” My favorite of the exhibit though was one that I had to think about for awhile and the longer I stood there the more I came to admire it.
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At Bellagio’s casino in Las Vegas, the hotel’s conservancy has a massive display of flowers. Sometimes, flowers are used to mimic a work of art. It’s captivating. Love the exhibition you depicted, Amy. Beautiful.
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I’ve been to the Bellagio and when I was there it was oversized garden creatures including the most beautiful slug I have ever seen 🙂
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