Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom

Flower is the gift to fill their life with colour again

Our fabulous floral survey is one of our better books for a better year ahead. Give someone you love a copy!

This year we might have all found time to stop and smell the roses, but fewer of us will have had many chances to step into a museum or gallery. 2021 looks as if it's going to be quite different, with plenty of opportunities to head back into those long, lost white cubes, and sites of cultural importance, to contemplate beautiful, man made images once more. Yet, how do we get back into the habit of visual appreciation? Perhaps by giving, or receiving a book such as Flower.  

Alfred Parsons and Ellen Willmott, Rosa chinensis,fromThe Genus Rosa, 1910–14
Alfred Parsons and Ellen Willmott, Rosa chinensis,fromThe Genus Rosa, 1910–14

Subtitled Exploring the World in Bloom, this new publication is a stunningly beautiful, engrossing and comprehensive survey of floral depictions and works of art, from almost every aspect of visual culture, including not only painting, photography and sculpture, but also cinema, fashion, fabric design, jewelry, ancient mosaics and contemporary video works.

Lewis Miller Design, Flower Flash, 2018. Floral installation, New York. Photo by Raymond Meier
Lewis Miller Design, Flower Flash, 2018. Floral installation, New York. Photo by Raymond Meier

The book's scope and potential influence is wide: a Yayoi Kusama sculpture might prompt a trip to a new exhibition; an image from Walt Disney’s Alice in Wonderland might encourage readers to seek out a classic cinema screening; a bold work of floral street art might lead to an inner-city adventure. In 2021, we’d certainly encourage every impulse. 

Anonymous, Yayoi Kusama at the Age of Ten in 1939. Photograph, Private collection. © Yayoi Kusama
Anonymous, Yayoi Kusama at the Age of Ten in 1939. Photograph, Private collection. © Yayoi Kusama

You don’t need any specialist knowledge or deep interests to enjoy the power of the petals shown in this book. Anyone with a love of looking at beauty will take joy in leafing through the pages illustrated with works from so diverse a range of creators, including Yayoi Kusama, Pablo Picasso, Kerry James Marshall, Walt Disney, Leonardo Da Vinci and Mary Quant.

This single subject opens up hundreds of artistic opportunities, with works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Tate in London, and the Louvre in Paris, alongside countless other libraries, galleries and private collections. 

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, from the eyes, the ears, 2005. C-print, 29.8 × 25.4 / 12 × 10 in. Courtesy Rinko Kawauchi
Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, from the eyes, the ears, 2005. C-print, 29.8 × 25.4 / 12 × 10 in. Courtesy Rinko Kawauchi

The book includes a detailed timeline, taking readers from ancient times to the present day, as well as a guide to the meaning of different flowers; the index allows readers to pick out some of their favourite cultural creatives, places and institutions, from Ansel Adams to Zuccotti Park.

 

A spread from Flower
A spread from Flower

That's why Forbes reccomends its readers "discover the endless ways artists and designers throughout history have depicted flowers and floral motifs" via our book, while The Financial Times describes the book as "a substantial survey", while the Daily Beast says Flower is “filled with art from all these fabulous places you've either been or wanted to go.”

Give this to a loved one, family member or friend and turn shy wallflowers into budding culture adventurers once more. To find out more, and order your copy of Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom, in time for Christmas go here, and let's all enjoy the unfurling of a new year.

Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom
Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom