Allure of Flowers Exhibition Guide for Docents ASTER

28 Pages·2014·0.56 MB·English

by  Sarah Watson

Allure of Flowers Exhibition Guide for Docents

Text Panel #1:
Floral patterns have appeared in decorative arts since ancient times. Inspired by the forms,
colors, and textures of the botanical worlds, artists across the globe have copied and
interpreted individual flowers, bouquets, and gardens in glass, ceramic, textile, and jewelry
design. Allure of Flowers presents a survey of outstanding works from the mid-nineteenth
century to today that collectively illustrate the evolution of floral ornament in modern and
contemporary applied art.

Drawn from the permanent collection of The Mint Museum, the exhibition is organized by
flower time, transforming the galleries into a multi-sensory garden and allowing visitors to see
how decorative treatments of the same flowers have evolved over time. The thirteen
categories are: aster, bouquets, fantasy flowers (which include būtas, the Indian motif also
known as “paisley”), flowering trees, irises, lilies, lotuses, peonies, poppies, orchids, roses,
tulips, and violets.

During the first half of the nineteenth century, textiles such as bed covers and shawls
displayed vibrant inventive patterns. Decorative ceramics and glassware emerged from a
period of conservative production to a new era of original design and technique. After mid-
century, Aestheticism and the Arts and Crafts Movement brought a renewed interest in
Japanese, Medieval, and Renaissance art, and the handmade. In the Art Nouveau period of the
late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the floral motif truly blossomed.

The 1960s and 70s, a time when graphic arts, textiles, and fashion were influenced by Art
Nouveau and psychedelic imagery, are well represented in the exhibition with fashion fabrics.
Hippie culture and the new Age of Aquarius led artists and designers to look once again to
India and the East. Still later, artists approached historical ornament, including flowers, with
Postmodern irony, as seen in several works of jewelry and ceramics in the exhibition.
Ultimately, artists’ ongoing interest in reinterpreting flowers in new styles appropriate to their
era illustrates the enduring allure of this motif.

Text Panel #2:
ASTER

The Asteraceae (Asterid) family, with over 23,000 species, is by far the largest family of
flowering plants. Asterids are found on every continent but Antarctica. Some members of the
family provide products such as cooking oils, herbal teas, salad greens, and sweeteners. Popular
species include marigolds, daisies, chrysanthemums, and sunflowers. The family’s Latin name
comes from the Greek word άστήρ (star), referring to the general shape of the flower head.
Some members can grow up to six feet tall and produce blossoms in white, pink, blue, red, and
purple.
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The flowers represented in this section reflect the wide variety found among the members of
the Asterid family. From the large daisies on Re-May’s disposable dress to Kate Clayton
Donaldson’s stylized potted blooms and the elaborate chrysanthemums adorning Mary Louise
McLaughlin’s nineteenth-century plate, the aster and its star-shaped cousins have been
cheerful choices for floral decoration on quilts, ceramics, jewelry, and other decorative arts for
decades.

Re-may. American, 20th century
Dress circa 1965
Polyester
Gift of the Mint Museum Auxiliary, donated by Mrs. Juanita C. Welsh. 1983.75.392

In March 1966, a coupon printed on various packages of Scott paper products allowed
customers to send in $1 in exchange for a sleeveless disposable shift dress in one of two
designs. After six months, Scott Paper Co. sold over 500,000 dresses, thus initiating the
disposable dress craze. As the unexpected demand for disposable dresses exceeded supply
in 1967, nonwoven fabrics (created by combining synthetic fibers with heat, pressure,
and/or binders like rubber) entered the disposable fashion market. Environmental concern
reached a new high in 1969, when images of an oil spill off Santa Barbara and chemicals
burning on Ohio’s Cuyahoga River appeared in the news. Following these environmental
disasters, disposable dresses were deemed environmentally irresponsible and disappeared
from the market by 1970.

This particular disposable dress features an aster floral design in a wide array of acidic
colors. The aster design, which resembles a daisy in this dress, was a popular floral motif
during the late 1960s.

Yaffa Sikorsky-Todd. American, 1951-
Flower Garden Perfume Bottle 1981
Glass
Gift of Sonia and Isaac Luski. 1986.28.2A-B

Yaffa Sikorsky-Todd studied glass at the Rochester Institute of Technology in the 1970s and
has taught at Penland School of Crafts several times since 1979. When she and husband
Jeffrey M. Todd first began working together in the early 1980s, they made goblets and
perfume bottles and added lampworked images to create ever more elaborate pieces. This
perfume bottle was created out of blown glass; pre-formed glass canes are applied to the
surface using a torch. The tiny aster millefiori (literally, thousands of flowers) are picked up
with tweezers, heated with the torch, and pressed on with a knife. Sikorsky-Todd began
researching fluorine opal glasses during her graduate studies and since then developed her
own unique formulas for melting colors and crystal glasses.

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Arnold Scaasi. American, 1931-
Cocktail Dress circa 1980-1990
Polyester, silk, leather
Gift of Arnold Scaasi. 1997.49.28A-B

Arnold Scaasi opened his fashion company in New York in the 1950s. Prior to starting his
own business, Scaasi worked for the House of Paquin in Paris and couturier Charles James in
New York. Early in his career, Scaasi became one of the few New York designers to focus on
custom-made clothing rather than ready-to-wear. Because of this, Scaasi amassed an
impressive clientele, including actresses Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, and Diahann
Carroll.

The padded shoulders of this cocktail dress are typical of 1980s style; the luxurious
materials, lively color, and classic A-line form are hallmarks of Scaasi’s designs. The floral
motif represented here is a member of the Aster family. This cocktail dress would have
been the highlight of any party.

Jacquard Coverlet 1848
Unknown American Maker, 19th century
Wool
Gift of Charles L. King. 1992.48

The Jacquard loom was invented in 1801; it enabled the weaver to raise each warp thread
independently of the others to create figured designs. The technique simplifies the process
of manufacturing complex textiles by using a chain of punched cards to create a woven
pattern. Although the loom did no computation based on the punched cards, it is still
considered an important conceptual precursor to the development of computer
programming. This navy-blue-and-white coverlet is two loom widths of a leafy
chrysanthemum pattern carefully sewn together. The chrysanthemum, from the Greek
words for “golden flower,” was first cultivated in America in 1798 and is found in dozens of
varieties. The daisy-like mum motifs seen here can be found in nature in many colors,
including yellow, pink, and white, and can be boiled to make teas or rice wine. In the United
States, the chrysanthemum is interpreted as a sign of friendship and good cheer, and is the
official flower of the city of Chicago.

Kate Clayton Donaldson. American, 1864-1960
Cow Blanket circa 1930s
Mercerized cotton, cotton thread, wool, vegetable dye
Gift of Katherine Crowell Atkins. 2000.15

Kate Clayton “Granny” Donaldson of Marble, North Carolina, was a regionally-recognized
artist in the 1920s and 1930s. Her choice of media tended to be mixed, although she is most
well known for her textiles of crocheted wool. In particular, her cow blankets, inspired by
the coverings she saw on the back of cows in Italy, have recently experienced a strong
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revival of interest. She created her first cow blanket in 1929 when a neighbor left a baby
blanket at her house. Donaldson thought it would be nice to appliqué crocheted animals
onto the homespun cloth background. A member of the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild
(founded in 1930 and still headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina) saw the blanket and
encouraged Donaldson to make more.

Jring Yuan Li. Chinese, 20th century
Sunny Day 1993
Stoneware, glaze
Allan Chasanoff Ceramic Collection. 2001.92.99.1A-B

This cheerful Yixing teapot features a large sunflower (Helianthus annuus); a large butterfly
rests atop the tightly-arranged florets on the lid instead of a typical handle. The vessel’s
name, Sunny Day, may refer both to the flower head’s frequent use in depictions of the sun
and to the plant’s need for full sun. Although immature flower buds exhibit the tendency to
track the sun’s progress across the sky—also known as heliotropism—mature sunflowers
point in a fixed direction throughout the day. The seeds of a sunflower can be sold whole as
snacks for humans and birds, processed into a peanut butter alternative, and used in salads.
The oil is frequently used in cooking as an alternative to olive oil and is used to manufacture
margarine and biodiesel. Yixing clay, used as a generic term to describe several different
varieties of stoneware, is found near the city of Yixing in Jiangsu province in eastern China.
As the typically unglazed surfaces absorb traces of the vessels’ contents, they are prized as
teapots that provide a richer flavor.

Anna Torma. Hungarian (active in Canada), 1952-
Rainy Day I; Games 2001
Cotton
Museum Purchase: Funds provided by Friends of the McColl Center for Visual Art and
Exchange Funds from the gifts of William M. McDuffie and an Anonymous Donor. 2007.65

Hungarian-born Anna Torma learned to embroider from her mother and grandmothers. She
was educated in textile art and design in Hungary and immigrated to Canada in the 1980s,
all the while producing large-scale hand-embroidered wall hangings and collages. Her work
integrates elements of collage and sketching, and uses motifs from folklore and children’s
drawings. Torma assembles a patchwork base composed of discarded fabric, and then
“draws” upon this ground in embroidery. Her goal is to create innovative textiles that
explore femininity, domesticity, and ethnicity—as such, her designs are often based upon
her children’s drawings and writings. Looking at the childlike, simple daisies stitched into
Rainy Day I; Games, it is easy to imagine little people spending a soggy afternoon indoors,
passing the time with make-believe, handwriting practice, and puzzles.

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Lucy Sarneel. Dutch, 1961-
Bait Mirror Brooch 2001
Steel, pigment, paint
Museum Purchase: Windgate Fund. 2005.50.3A-B

Lucy Sarneel draws upon the iconic shape of an aster in her Bait Mirror Brooch. This
recognizable blossom, depicted in hot pink, symbolizes the age-old, universal association of
all flowers with female beauty and powers of seduction. Jewelry has the same associations,
and flowers could be considered one of the earliest and simplest forms of “jewelry” worn by
humans to attract others’ attention. The title and composition of the Bait Mirror Brooch
serve to make us conscious—perhaps even self-conscious—of this aspect of the allure of
flowers.

Lucy Sarneel. Dutch, 1961
Brooch 2003
Silver, fabric, shells, epoxy
Museum Purchase: Funds provided by Susan C. Beech. 2005.50.2

This brooch, which features asters, demonstrates Lucy Sarneel’s inventiveness with
materials and her interest in the similarities among different forms in nature. Five seashells
are set like gems or petals around a center made of silver wire. Their radial symmetry is
altered by their varying sizes, lending an organic feel to the composition. On either side,
rectangles of silver are lined with printed fabric whose pattern of asters and irregular
geometric shapes echoes the shells’ arrangement. The printed fabric is antique, imported to
the Netherlands from India, and was used on traditional costumes in Dutch villages. Sarneel
began to incorporate fabric from these costumes into her jewelry around 2003.

Vera Siemund. German, 1971-
Brooch 2004
Steel, copper
Gift of Susan C. Beech. 2005.58

The stylized asters and other floral forms that play across the surface of Vera Siemund’s
Brooch reflect her interest in bringing the history of decorative ornament forward into the
present. The brooch’s imagery derives not from nature, but from the artist’s study of
precedents including cut velvet textiles of the Renaissance and the nineteenth-century
wallpapers that emulated them. The brooch resembles a fragment from one of these
sources, with the symmetrical asters helping to orient the viewer to the pattern.
Meanwhile, the horizontal shape and curved edges, particularly the three-dimensional
scrolled shape on the right, reference the Empire sofa style, which in turn was adapted from
ancient Greek furniture. Thus, Siemund transposes decorative features of other media to
the format of jewelry, synthesizing them into something new.

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Mary Louise McLaughlin (decorator). American, 1847-1939
Vase 1898
Earthenware
Gift of the American Ceramic Society. 2006.102.144

Chrysanthemums adorn this vase hand-painted by Mary Louise McLaughlin in a harmonious
union of style and subject matter. Members of the Aster family, the flowers are native to
Asia and northeastern Europe, and feature in Chinese art as a symbol of autumn.
McLaughlin’s composition of chrysanthemums and the shape of the pre-existing vase that
she chose to decorate are Chinese in style, and the palette of gold, orange, and red is
appropriately autumnal. McLaughlin was inspired by the Asian art she saw at the Centennial
Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, which remained a wellspring throughout her career.

Mary Louise McLaughlin (decorator). American, 1847-1939
Plate 1889
Porcelain
Gift of the American Ceramic Society. 2006.102.161

Like the vase displayed nearby, this plate is decorated with chrysanthemums using the china
painting technique, in which paints made from a mixture of mineral oxides and finely
ground glass are applied to a glazed, premade ceramic form (called a blank), and fuse to it
when fired in a kiln. McLaughlin was a leading figure in American ceramics for her
instrumental role in popularizing china painting and her innovations with other techniques,
such as under-glaze painting and carved porcelain. This plate was displayed and auctioned
at the tenth anniversary luncheon of the Cincinnati Pottery Club, which she had founded in
1879 to promote ceramic artistry in her native city.

Text Panel #3:
LILY

In her poem A Red Rose, Julia C.R. Dorr wrote, “And the stately lilies stand fair in the silvery
light, like saintly vestals.” Lilies (family Liliaceae) are a group of flowering plants that are
significant in culture and literature the world over; true lilies are all grown from bulbs and are
distinguished by their large, prominent flowers. These flowers are often fragrant and come in a
variety of colors, including whites, yellows, oranges, pinks, red, and purples. Lilies are often
grown in the garden in temperate and sub-tropical environments, but can be grown indoors in
pots in any climate. The Lilium longiflorum, or Easter lily, makes up a significant part of the cut-
flower market. Although it was formerly placed with the Liliaceae, the lily-of-the-valley is
actually a member of the Asparagaceae family.

The lily has appeared in art and literature for centuries, often in a stylized form. In ancient
Greek lore, a lily was associated with birth and motherhood; in the Middle Ages, its significance
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expanded to include the Holy Trinity, the purity of the Virgin Mary, renewal, promise, cleansing,
and clarity. In the Western world, various versions of the lily have symbolized cultivated ladies,
nobility, and purity of spirit. The delicate lily-of-the-valley is also a symbol of humility.

Mark Peiser. American, 1938-
Lilies of the Valley 1978
Glass, zinc crystal
Gift of Sonia and Isaac Luski. 1986.28.9

Lilies of the valley, which grow throughout Europe and North America, have long been
prized for their sprays of small, sweetly scented, usually white flowers. Mark Peiser’s
graceful rendering of them is the product of keen observation of nature and great technical
skill. This vase comes from a series he called Paperweight Vases, made between 1976 and
1981, and inspired by the natural environment around his home and studio in Penland,
North Carolina. To make them, Peiser used a torch to form glass canes into individual
blossoms, stems, and leaves. He then painstakingly placed each part onto successive layers
of hot glass. The act of inflating the glass enhanced the realism of the imagery, creating
layers of depth as if one were surrounded by flowers.

Peiser is renowned as a founding member of the studio glass movement; the Paperweight
Vase series is one of several influential series he has produced.

Howard Family. American, 19th century
Crazy Quilt circa 1890
Silk velvet, silk brocade, faux fur, silk thread
Gift of Fleur and Charles Bresler. 2001.38.11

Crazy quilts use irregular fabric scraps (often leftover from furnishing textiles and clothing)
to form a haphazard-looking pattern that is in fact based on an organized, predetermined
diamond plan. This work was made during the peak of the crazy-quilt popularity, 1880-
1920. The fabric scraps were laid out onto a plain ground, then hand-embroidered with
heavily-embellished stitches. In comparison to other quilts in this exhibition, this crazy quilt
incorporates differently-textured pieces of fabric and more elaborate embroidery, as the
careful geometric design is much less important. Although most quilts in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries were thought to maintain a family’s morality by filling the
home with inherently beautiful objects, this well-made crazy quilt is much more than just a
utilitarian object. Several fabric scraps are embellished with large, distinctive trumpet lilies.
These are robust, fragrant cultivars that are prized in the garden for their graceful stature
and wonderful variety.

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Harriet Elizabeth Wilcox (decorator). American, circa 1869-1948
Rookwood Pottery. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1880-1967
Vase 1906
Earthenware
Daisy Wade Bridges Collection. 1986.90.11

The flowers depicted here by Harriet Elizabeth Wilcox are probably white trout lilies, which
are a native wildflower in Cincinnati, blooming in March and April, and may well have been
drawn from life. In Wilcox’s image, the lily stems and leaves curve sinuously around the
vase’s form, and the palette is made up of complementary colors appropriate to spring: soft
green, white, and yellow against a pastel background that gently shades from lighter to
darker peach. Wilcox’s composition is coated in Iris glaze, a crystal clear glaze often used on
ceramics with pale color schemes. Iris was so named because Rookwood’s glaze designers
believed it matched the sheen of the iris plant and was well suited for depictions of it; it was
also used with other flowers.

Text Panel #4:
TULIP

Botanically speaking, the tulip, genus Tulipa, is a member of the lily family. Tulips originated in
Turkey and grow throughout the Northern Hemisphere; their name derives from a Turkish word
for turban, referencing the flower’s shape. The Turks are one of several cultures that have
revered the tulip, represented it in art, and changed its form through selective cultivation.

Wild tulips have star-shaped blossoms with six open petals, often red, yellow, or white, but are
capable of great variety in petal shape and color. By the 1500s, the Turks favored tulip blossoms
in an elongated, closed, and pointed shape that was likened to a dagger. This shape is found in
Turkish decorative art, and echoed in the Swedish designer Nils Landberg’s Tulpenglas.

The tulip was unknown in Europe until the 1550s. First introduced to Austria, it subsequently
became widely popular in Holland. The Dutch love of the tulip was immediate and intense,
spurring tulipomania, which refers especially to the speculative market bubble that grew and
burst between 1634 and 1637. The Dutch immortalized the tulip in lush still-life paintings and
decorative arts.

Despite the Dutch tulip market crash, the market itself persisted, and the tulip has remained
popular in Europe and North America ever since. The myriad possibilities of its form have
appealed to artists and designers whose work is represented in this section of the exhibition,
ranging from the delicate naturalism of Alice Ballard Munn to the modernist abstraction of
Landberg, Emilio Pucci, and Eero Saarinen.

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Alice Ballard Munn. American, 1945-
Bud XXIII 1983
Earthenware
Museum Purchase. 1984.11.3

Bud XXIII transforms a tulip bud into a graceful, sculptural vessel, with ruffle-edged petals
curving inward as if protecting the space they conceal. Its balanced form, sinuous lines, and
color palette of pale pink achieve the sense of tranquility that Alice Ballard Munn aims for
viewers to experience. To create her nature-inspired ceramics, she first spends hours
contemplating a plant form in order to sense its energy; next, she draws the form and finally
sculpts it by hand building with terra sigillata clay. This process and her resulting sculptures
reflect the artist’s belief in the interconnectedness of living things; she has said, “Tulip bulbs
and the human form share many of the same sensual qualities.”

Eero Saarinen (designer). American (born in Finland), 1910-1961
Knoll Associates. New York, NY, United States, 1938-
Sheila Hicks (fabric designer). American, 1934-
Tulip Chair 1955-1956
Fiberglass-reinforced polyester, aluminum, fabric
Harold E. Smyre (Architect Emeritus) Collection. L2013.59

For Eero Saarinen, the shape of a tulip became the solution for a design problem that had
long interested him: “The undercarriage of chairs and tables in a typical interior makes an
ugly, confusing, unrestful world. I wanted to clear up the slum of legs.” His design of a single
pedestal supporting a curved seat offers an elegant, streamlined alternative, one that is
innovative in form as well as in its use of molded plastic. The Tulip Chair, also called the
Pedestal Chair, is part of a series Saarinen designed for the furniture company Knoll that
included an armchair and tables. The pedestal series is still in production, its versatility
attested by its widespread use today.

Emilio Pucci. Italian, 1914-1992
Full-length skirt circa 1970-1975
Cotton, velvet weave
Gift of Hope V. Panas Trust. 2011.72.17

Known for fashions made of vibrant swirling textile patterns, Emilio Pucci began his career
by designing clothing for the Reed College ski team in Portland, Oregon. These ski uniforms
garnered much attention and were featured in Harper’s Bazaar in 1948. Pucci opened his
haute couture fashion house on the island of Capri, Italy, in 1949, featuring swimwear,
colorful scarves, and the famous “Capri pants.” Most popular during the Swinging Sixties,
Pucci designs were seen on international celebrities including Sophia Loren, Grace Kelly, and
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Marilyn Monroe was an extremely devoted fan of Pucci’s
designs, so much so that she was buried in a Pucci dress. Today, Pucci’s dresses, body suits,
and resort wear are undergoing a Renaissance. Depicting pink, red, black, and white tulips
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in an energetic design, the pattern of this full-length skirt reflects the psychedelic style of
the time.

Nils Landberg. Swedish, 1907-1991
Orrefors. Orrefors, Sweden, 1898-
Tulpanglas 1957
Blown glass
Gift of Holly, Rachel, and Gerald Eggert in honor of Melissa G. Post. 2002.46

Orrefors has been a well-known glassworks since the early twentieth century; its designers
launched the concept of Swedish Modern at the New York World’s Fair in 1939, when
colorful, vigorous, and exotic became buzzwords for modern glassware. During the mid-
1940s, designer Nils Landberg developed a series of shallow bowls and tulip-shaped vases
sporting abstract, engraved designs. These vases led to his Tulpanglas vases of the mid-
1950s, which a master glassblower described as “the most difficult…and most exciting thing
I ever did.” Sizes and shapes varied, but the tendency was toward ever more exaggerated
stem lengths. This example is strongly evocative of the tulip’s elegant, simple form,
although such an attenuated stem could not be expected to adequately support the heavy
head of a real tulip. Today the Tulpanglas is regarded as a signature Orrefors form.

Text Panel #5:
ROSE

The rose is from the genus Rosa, in the Rosaceae family of flowering plants, which includes
about 2,830 species. It is the most alluring, sensual, and aromatic of all flowers. First called the
“queen of flowers” by Sappho in her poem “Ode to a Rose” of 600 BCE, it is a symbol of love
and passion. The first fossilized record of a rose dates back 3.5 billion years, and the first
written record was 3000 BCE in what is now Iraq. The Chinese were probably the first to
cultivate roses; Confucius (551-479 BCE) wrote about the roses in the Imperial gardens. The
ancient Greeks grew roses for their beauty, for medicinal purposes, and for perfume. Seduced
by the scent of roses, the ancient Romans first imported them from Egypt and then grew them
extensively, even replacing roses for food crops, and ultimately establishing a thriving rose
industry. Crusaders, in the eleventh through the thirteenth centuries, brought the first repeat
blooming rose plants to Europe. Colonists brought the rose to North America in the sixteenth
century, and it is the longest-cultivated European flower here. A most precious plant, it has
figured prominently in gardens throughout the globe. Empress Josephine of France (1763-1814)
was so fond of roses that she created an extraordinary rose garden at Malmaison in 1798,
which included every rose type known at that time. The rose is the national flower of the
United States. Universally recognized as a magnificent flower, the rose has been depicted in art
throughout time and across cultures. Nineteenth century quilts in this section of the exhibition
feature rose blossom motifs large and small, and luscious painted roses add appropriate allure
to a folding fan from the 1920s.

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