The Art of the Flower: The Floral Still Life from the 17th to the 20th Century

by Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Hans-Michael Herzog (Editor), Norbert Schneider (Editor)

The "flower piece" has existed as an art genre since the 16th century, but for decades the floral still life was considered unworthy of artists' attention because of its alleged superficiality and bourgeois banality. But now in the nineties, this old motif is enjoying a revival. ART OF THE FLOWER places the genre in its historical perspective.

142 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1996

Reviews

[Mike Zickar · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bit of a mess of a book. The highlight are the sixty or so lush color reproductions of work, great images of paintings and photographs spanning the last roughly 500 years of floral still life. But the book lacks cohesion with two essays, one on the early floral still lifes (this essay is pretty good) and another on photographic still lifes. And there are plenty of images in the book that lack little or no reference in the text. I wanted to learn more about Rudolf Dischinger (several great paintings of his are in the back) but there is little to no information in the text about him. Why were these works chosen? What was their historical background?

I finished the book disappointed and hungry for more information.