Plant: exploring the botanical world

Abstract

"Plant: Exploring the Botanical World brings together more than 300 outstanding botanical works of art from throughout history, revealing the extraordinary beauty of plants and highlighting their fascinating role in our culture. Truly global, Plant features artworks by artists from the United States, Europe, China and India, recording everything from garden plants to rare and exotic species from South America and Africa. It includes botanical art across all media--from ancient stone carvings, medieval manuscripts and watercolours to photographs, sculpture and cutting-edge micrograph scans. Chosen by an international panel of experts, the artworks reflect the many reasons people depict plants, whether to record a newly discovered species, to share knowledge on poisons and antidotes, or simply to celebrate the diversity of the plant kingdom. Read about tulipomania, the remarkable craze that gripped the Netherlands in the seventeenth century, and thale cress, the first plant to undergo its complete lifecycle in space; and learn why Cinchona officinalis is one of the most influential trees in world history. Arranged in complementary or contrasting pairs to create thought-provoking juxtapositions, Plant includes the greatest names in botanical illustration, including the 'Raphael of Flowers' Pierre-Joseph Redouté, Sydney Parkinson who accompanied James Cook on his first voyage to the Pacific and the influential Margaret Mee, alongside work by celebrated artists and photographers such as Araki, Karl Blossfeldt, Adam Fuss, Nick Knight, Yayoi Kusama and Thomas Ruff, contemporary botanical illustrators and pioneering scientists"-- On front flap of dust jacket.

Contents

Introduction -- Works of art -- Timeline -- Plant taxonomy & glossary -- Selected biographies -- Further reading -- Index.