This article by Graham Wood can be found on the 'Wanted' online magazine
THE NEW CONTEMPORARY POWER OF TRADITIONAL FLOWER ILLUSTRATIONS
'BOTANICAL ART WORLDWIDE', AN EXHIBITION AT THE EVERARD READ GALLERY, HAMMERS HOME THE POPULARITY AND VITALITY OF THIS SIMULTANEOUSLY NEW AND TRADITIONAL GENRE
24 May 2018
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| Adenium boehmianum, Bushamans Poison by Gillian Condy |
The opening of Botanical Art Worldwide at the Everard Read Gallery on May 17 must be one of the most packed-to-the-rafters I can remember going to. By all accounts, there has been a steady flow of people through the gallery since that night.
The exhibition’s popularity took me by surprise but maybe it shouldn’t have. There is something undeniably zeitgeisty about botanical art. It represents a crossover between art and science, which has been a prominent theme in recent contemporary art (probably in a way that is much more authentic and historically rooted than quite a few of the more recent, trendy attempts to do so). It also straddles the overlap between art and craft – because what we call botanical art now, was for a long time considered simply botanical illustration, a skill purely in the service of scientific study...
