Art Forms in the Plant World


Book Description

Originally intended as reference for his work as architect, sculptor, and teacher, Blossfeldt's exquisite sharp-focus photo studies of plant form — leaves, buds, stems, seed pods, tendrils and twigs — won acclaim with publication of the 1928 edition of this book. 120 full-page black-and-white plates. Original introduction. Publisher's Note. Captions.




Microscopic Art Forms from the Plant World


Book Description

A garden of earthly delights is in bloom!Within the mysterious world of microscopic plants lies an exciting source of design. The proof is in this amazing collection of images, a splendid mix of art and science, brimming with life forms as fascinating as any abstract art. From undulating curves to complex geometrics, this beautiful book and CD set features 364 detailed illustrations of nature's minute but magnificent handiwork. These royalty-free images are a wonderful reference for science illustrators—and designers ready to leap into new worlds of the imagination.




Karl Blossfeldt


Book Description

These black & white images of plant seeds, stems, blossoms, pods, leaves & bulbs are as arresting in their detail as they are beautiful in their simplicity. The result is a rather surreal documentary of nature as art.




The Art of Plant Evolution


Book Description

Book published on the occasion of exhibition at Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in 2009.




Art Forms in Nature (Dover Pictorial Archive)


Book Description

The exquisite color illustrations of Haeckel's Art Forms in Nature seamlessly blend scientific accuracy with a distinctive Art Nouveau aesthetic. These compelling images stimulate awe in artists, students, and scientists of all ages.




Botanical Speculations


Book Description

Ground-breaking scientific research and new philosophical perspectives currently challenge our anthropocentric cultural assumptions of the vegetal world. As humanity begins to grapple with the urgency imposed by climate change, reconsidering human/plant relationships becomes essential to grant a sustainable future on this planet. It is in this context that a multifaceted approach to plant-life can reveal the importance of ecological interconnectedness and lead to a more nuanced consideration of the variety of living organisms and ecosystems with which we share the planet. In Botanical Speculations, researchers, artists, art historians, and activists collaboratively map the uncharted territories of new forms of botanical knowledge. This book emerges from a symposium held at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in September 2017, and capitalizes on contemporary art’s ability to productively unhinge scientific theories and certainties in order to help us reconsider unquestioned beliefs about this living world.




Karl Blossfeldt: Variations


Book Description

How Karl Blossfeldt's plant photographs were disseminated in the popular media of the time, from pattern books to magazine spreads In the 1890s, the Berlin artist, sculptor and teacher Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) started to photograph plants, seeds and other illustrative material from nature for the purpose of teaching his students about the patterns and designs found in natural forms. His close-ups of the smallest plant parts, magnified up to 30 times their natural size, startle us as they dramatically highlight the geometrical and sculptural properties of plants. Published in 1928, his first collection of photographs, Urformen der Kunst (later translated into English as Art Forms in Nature) became an international bestseller and remains one of the most significant photobooks of the 20th century. Karl Blossfeldt: Variations is the first monograph to examine the reception of Blossfeldt's work. Drawing on unpublished materials, it analyzes the photographs' replication in teaching materials, pattern books, art books and in the pages of the illustrated press. The six sections of the book trace the paths that Blossfeldt's legendary plant motifs took in their incarnations as specimens, illustrations, patterns, analogues, models and abstractions from 1890 to 1945. Thematic contemporary appraisals illustrating the rediscovery of Blossfeldt's motifs in design and architecture over the past 20 years complement this new perspective on the beloved German photographer.




Why Look at Plants?


Book Description

Winner of the 2019 Outstanding Academic Titles award in Choice, a publishing unit of the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Why Look at Plants? proposes a thought-provoking and fascinating look into the emerging cultural politics of plant-presence in contemporary art. Through the original contributions of artists, scholars, and curators who have creatively engaged with the ultimate otherness of plants in their work, this volume maps and problematizes new intra-active, agential interconnectedness involving human-non-human biosystems central to artistic and philosophical discourses of the Anthropocene. Plant’s fixity, perceived passivity, and resilient silence have relegated the vegetal world to the cultural background of human civilization. However, the recent emergence of plants in the gallery space constitutes a wake-up-call to reappraise this relationship at a time of deep ecological and ontological crisis. Why Look at Plants? challenges readers’ pre-established notions through a diverse gathering of insights, stories, experiences, perspectives, and arguments encompassing multiple disciplines, media, and methodologies.




Art Forms in Nature


Book Description

Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) photographed thousands of plants; these are almost never seen from above, but rather from the side, and against a neutral background. This book featuers these images of plants.




The Botanical Mind


Book Description

Humanity's place in the natural order is under scrutiny as never before, held in a precarious balance between visible and invisible forces: from the microscopic threat of a virus to the monumental power of climate change. Drawing on indigenous traditions from the Amazon rainforest; alternative perspectives on Western scientific rationalism; and new thinking around plant intelligence, philosophy and cultural theory, The Botanical Mind Online investigates the significance of the plant kingdom to human life, consciousness and spirituality across cultures and through time. It positions the plant as both a universal symbol found in almost every civilisation and religion across the globe, and the most fundamental but misunderstood form of life on our planet. This new online project has been developed in response to the COVID-19 crisis and the closure of our galleries due to the pandemic. 'The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and The Cosmic Tree' was originally conceived as a trans-generational group exhibition, but has been postponed. In the meantime, we have launched this complimentary online programme of new artist commissions, podcasts, films, texts, images and audio, expanding on and enriching the ideas and issues informing the show over at botanicalmind.online ... During this period of enforced stillness, our behaviour might be seen to resonate with plants: like them we are now fixed in one place, subject to new rhythms of time, contemplation, personal growth and transformation. Millions of years ago plants chose to forego mobility in favour of a life rooted in place, embedded in a particular context or environment. The life of a plant is one of constant, sensitive response to its environment - a process of growth, problem-solving, nourishment and transformation, played out at speeds and scales very different to our own. In this moment of global crisis and change there has perhaps never been a better moment to reflect on and learn from them.--https://camdenartcentre.org/the-botanical-mind-online/