Garden as Art: Beatrix Farrand at Dumbarton Oaks

by Thaïsa Way (Editor), Sahar Coston-Hardy (Photographs)

"Garden As Art: Beatrix Farrand at Dumbarton Oaks features essays and photographs of this remarkable landscape as a living and breathing work of art. Published on the occasion of the centennial of the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens in 2021, the book illuminates the stewardship of one of the most beautiful gardens on earth. Edited by Thaïsa Way, this volume includes essays from scholars and practitioners as well as photographs by landscape photographer Sahar Coston-Hardy. The essays place the garden in the context of its historical surroundings, explore its archival significance, and reflect on its effects on the world of contemporary design. Accompanying the essays is a collection of newly commissioned photographs by Coston-Hardy that document the seasons and growth in the gardens over the course of a year and that invite the reader to contemplate the art of garden design and the remarkable beauty of the natural world. Archival images of the gardens offer a chronicle of evolving design concepts as well as illustrate how gardens change over time as living works of art. Garden As Art offers an inspiring view of a place that has been remarkably influential in design and the art of landscape architecture"--

312 pages, Hardcover

Published July 19, 2022

Reviews

[Carolyn]

The photography in this one was really well done and beautiful. There were also many historical and contextualizing essays in here -- many -- which I think were more or less well done but they significantly outlasted my attention span. I simply do not care that much about Dumbarton Oaks.

I found the history of the property and surrounding area pretty depressing. Yes, it's much easier to build and maintain large establishments if you don't pay for labor (::cough cough slavery::). Then there was a phase where the powers that were kept displacing established Black communities to build whites-only parks and golf courses. Oh, Virginia.

[Win Dunwell]

I must admit my first impression was negative, a hardcover with a printed cover (textbook-like without a dust cover) for this subject and quality of writing and photographs? I am a big fan of Thaisa Way ever since she wrote the landscape architecture of richard haag.

[Servabo]

Gardens are a living piece of art. It's a beautiful place, it harbors all that we might need: repose, beauty, substenance and refuge. This natural dialectic let's us to reflect on the past and to anticipate the future in all that it has to offer.