Flora in the City

Jane Freilicher's paintings of flowers and cityscapes in the gallery show "Jane Freilicher: Recent Work" at Tibor de Nagy Gallery in NYC are getting great buzz, including this review in the New York Observer by Hilton Kramer (link courtesy of About Last Night, where this show is currently one of Teachout's Top Five):

In some of the paintings—Nasturtiums Before a Red Cloth, for example, and Nasturtiums and Petunias I—the spirited patterns traced by the blossoms, leaves and stems of the flowers do seem to be performing a kind of dance on the canvas, in which every element is not so much composed as choreographed. In other paintings, however—Light Blue Above and Flowers on a Wicker Tray—the flowers in their vases seem to be sitting for their portraits. Under the magic of Ms. Freilicher’s fluent brush, they acquire a 'personality' that places them beyond the category of still-life.

The gallery's site includes thumbnails of some of the pieces, among them this one, "Mallows and Trumpetvine", which has sent me into a lather of covetousness just a tad inappropriate for heading into the Triduum. Wish I were there, but since I can't be, maybe I'll settle for a copy of the show's catalog, which includes this delicious quote (via Hilton Kramer's review): "Notice how the city pulls apart to give these stalks and stems room to perform their Matissean shimmy."

Comments

[avril]

any links to great garden blogs? I've had a hard time finding many worthwhile, strangely enough.

[Chan S.]

Avril, Sheila Lennon maintains a gardening blog list at Providence Journal, which is incredibly comprehensive and is updated frequently -- I think there's something there for everyone. Link is http://www.projo.com/cgi-bin/include.pl/blogs/shenews/gardenblogs.htm.