World's first public botanic art gallery opens
LONDON (Reuters Life!) - The world's first public art gallery dedicated to botanic paintings and engravings opens on Saturday in the heart of London's world famous Kew Gardens.
Combining some of Kew's own massive collection of botanic art and parts of the private collection of botanist Shirley Sherwood, the purpose-built gallery offers a unique glimpse into the world of plants.
"This places botanical art on the world map and at a time when plants have never been so important to us because of global warming," Kew director Stephen Hopper said at a preview of the opening show at the gallery this week.
"The beauty, rarity and accuracy of the images displayed ... will raise public awareness of the beauty and fragility of the natural world," he said.
From a 15th century engraving of a mandrake plant to modern paintings of a beetroot and coconut the exhibition is not simply an artistic rendering of the world of plants but a scientific investigation into their innermost workings.
Kew's own collection -- consisting of 200,000 works of art and 300,000 printed books -- has always been available for botanists to study, but in limited space.
The new gallery, named after Sherwood who helped raise much of the money for the building -- allows works to be properly displayed for the general public for the first time.
"This is celebrating a renaissance worldwide of botanical art," Sherwood, whose own collection of 700 works by 232 artists is deemed to be the finest private collection of botanical art in the world, said at the opening. Continued...
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