"Bouquet to Arts 2014" at the de Young Fine Arts Museum

I am usually only mildly interested in going to museums when there is no big photography or modern fashion exhibition to see. I tend to not get much from seeing paintings or pots up-close and can easily feel overwhelmed by the mass of art pieces in just one room at some museums. But when I found out about the "Bouquets to Art" show at the de Young Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, I was intrigued by the concept and was eager to see the show. Apparently it's a springtime tradition for the museum to have "gifted floral designers bring their imaginative interpretations to works in the de Young’s permanent collection", but this year was the first time I was here to see it and I am thrilled I got to experience this unique exhibition. 

The numerous floral arrangements were placed with their corresponding art pieces all over the museum and it was absolutely stunning to see how they so harmoniously became part of the individual shows. 

The most impressive work was definitely to be seen in the room dedicated to the "The Bay Bridge: A Work in Progress, 1933–1936" show. The photographs and sketches are interesting enough themselves, but the floral designers' interpretations of the artworks certainly added a very mesmerizing element to it. The geometry and architecture seen in the images did not get lost in the bouquets and in my opinion this was where the floral designers were most creative with their creations, taking into account the shapes and lines of the original image but coming up with incredibly unique arrangements that were enjoyable even when not viewed in context of the room's theme.

Another highlight was the "Shaping Abstraction" exhibition room, which seemed to have very literal floral adaptions of the artwork on display. What I liked about this room is that it could easily have been the painting having been inspired by the bouquet rather than the other way around. The paintings and the flowers were in sync and the whole room was simply gorgeous.

The whole exhibition was so enormous and the museum was so crowded, it was impossibly to study all areas of the museums closely. Nonetheless this was more than worth the visit and I am glad I got to see this beautiful show (which ended yesterday, btw).

The b/w bouquet pictured below, which matched the marvelous Jay DeFeo painting seen in the background, was probably my favorite piece in the entire show. 

all pictures taken by me