In 1976 the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) in Boston had a canny idea to revive flagging visitor numbers. The institution’s ‘Ladies Committee’ would create floral interpretations of artworks in the collection and place these arrangements next to the pieces that had inspired them. ‘Art in Bloom’, as it became known, drew people not only to the museum but also to parts of the building with traditionally lower footfall, and blossomed into an annual springtime tradition. To mark 50 years since the first edition of ‘Art in Bloom’, the MFA is putting on an exhibition of some 120 works from its collection that explore gardens in all their glory (15 March–28 June). Opening with a monumental Flemish tapestry from the late 16th or early 17th century and culminating with more recent work that invites us to consider our relationship with land and nature, the exhibition takes in paintings by Monet and Caillebotte, photographs by Ansel Adams, a silk hunting carpet made in 16th-century Persia and several extraordinary Chinese silk paintings and scrolls.
Find out more from MFA Boston’s website.
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