FLOWERS
A life changing exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery
Last week I went to the FLOWERS – FLORA IN CONTEMPORARY ART & CULTURE exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. I was a little sleep deprived. It had been an early rise to catch the train to London. The gallery was incredibly warm, and I was carrying a weighty rucksack, which has been known to cause me emotional distress.
I was welling up within minutes.
You climb a steep staircase and then you’re immersed into the gallery. You’re greeted with an introduction to the exhibition and then an introduction to Room 1: Roots. I’m an incredibly slow reader so people did laps of room 1 before I had even finished reading the intro. I just wanted to take in every single delicious word.
One of the first pieces of artwork on display was Still Life with Flowers, c.1700. Painted by Jean Baptiste Bosschaert. For any of you who’ve been here for a while or listened to the latest episode of my podcast, you know I love the Dutch Masters. The moody backgrounds and jewel rich colours are a big source of inspiration in my floristry.
The title of the painting is boring, let’s be honest. But the painting is spectacular. Large, dramatic blooms tumble out of an ornate urn. There’s tulips and lilacs and narcissus. Lots of foliages and twirly vines. The abundance. I just couldn’t look away.
I felt like a big dafty that it made me well up. I am prone to being overemotional. I was just so grateful for being there, I didn’t think I’d be able to fit in a trip to London before the exhibition closed. It was a ‘pinch me’ moment. Standing there in front of a Dutch Masters painting.
Some of the artwork was beautiful, utterly stunning, and for me it didn’t go deeper than that. But that feels important. It’s just as important. Looking at beautiful things just because you like looking at them isn’t trivial. Perhaps you know this already and you’re rolling your eyes at me. But it felt good to be reminded of this.
One of my brand values for Rook Botanics is beauty. Everyone should have beauty in their lives.
Yet it can feel trivial to seek out beauty.
All of this is to say - even the paintings that didn’t make me cry because they helped me discover my floristry style, or whatever, were just as important.
Something else that really impressed me was how much contemporary art they included in the exhibition, that was also available to buy. It felt important to recognise how deeply important flowers are to art, culture and society and to back that up by helping current artists to showcase and sell their work.
Have you been to the FLOWERS exhibition? I want to hear your thoughts and talk to you about it because I want to continue thinking and talking about it for as long as possible. Sometimes I worry that I’m too enthusiastic and because I’ve shouted from the rooftops I’ve accidently oversold how good it is. Let me know if you’ve been!
Oh, also. I took 291 photos at the exhibition. So please be warned, there will be more essays about FLOWERS. This one would have been longer but I left it until 10pm to start writing and I want to go to bed.
With love and tired eyes,
P.S. My latest episode of my podcast Flowers & Folklore is out now and it’s all about tulips. You can find it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts and lots of other places.