FLOWERS & OTHER ART IN RALEIGH (Cheri)

I have long been a huge fan of the annual Bouquets to Art exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco.  This year we scheduled a visit to the Art in Bloom exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

I am still a bigger fan of the de Young exhibit, but at least the crowds are about 1/10 the size in Raleigh, so Mark came with me to this one.

I'll put the rest of my favorite floral exhibits at the bottom of this post.  I have always enjoyed the El Anatsui piece that is hung outside a de Young gallery that has often been the home for fashion exhibits, and was excited to see another piece near the front of this museum:

I never appreciate these works fully until I see them up close:

The plaque told me more about the materials and their source, but - new to me - also their significance:

Happily, since about 25% of North Carolina's residents are Black, the museum has a large, respectful selection of art related to Black and slavery issues.

This marble piece, from the early 1st century, would have documented the release from slavery of the subject family:

I wish I had seen a plaque for this unique piece of furniture:

Given its placement, I think it had a religious function, but it was difficult to tell.

This picture and the plaque commemorated a school that I certainly wish were still in existence:

This is a single panel of a piece fashioned from electronic trash:

I was first pulled towards this piece simply because I like buttons:

From the side it looked like a very large vacuum attachment.  Reading the artist's statement after the fact, however, I realized that the piece has a serious message:

The two differences between the Raleigh and de Young floral exhibits seem to be that the de Young's has more ties between the floral pieces and the inspiration art pieces, and that the Raleigh floral pieces are a little more homogenous.

The floral arrangement at the top of this post, however, has a clear tie-in to the inspiration piece.  I showed the "back" of the arrangement above, but here is the inspiration piece and the arrangement's "front":

Here is another piece that tied to its inspiration:

I haven't included the inspiration piece for this next arrangement, which was my favorite overall.  What you see is the front, side, and back.  (The statue in the screen on the front is simply a reflection of a nearby piece of art.)

This is just a classic beauty:

Finally, for true art nerds . . .

I love frames!  I wish there were whole exhibits of frames.  Here are a few that I saw today, including the side of the marbled-paper cover of a (very large) book of John James Audubon bird paintings.