Bulbmania - Flowers from the Kew Collection

Sat 28 August 2010 - Mon 03 January 2011

This exhibition celebrates the wide-ranging beauty of bulbs and runs until 3 January 2011 at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art.

Agapanthus africanus by Pandora Sellars

LAA KG Arum dioscorides var. dioscorides2

Amorphophallus species by Mary Grierson (Image: Kew Collection)

Bulbmania - Flowers from the Kew Collection

This exhibition celebrates the wide-ranging beauty of bulbs and is on display at the Shirley Sherwood Gallery of Botanical Art. Comprising more than 70 paintings, artists featured include Georg Dionysius Ehret, who was the most highly regarded botanical artist of the 18th century, the prolific botanical artist Lillian Snelling and the contemporary, award-winning, Pandora Sellars.

Back in the 17th century, the frenzy for bulb collecting known as 'bulbmania' resulted in extravagant prices being paid for highly prized individual tulips in Europe. Until the middle of the 20th century, some wild bulbs were collected on an enormous scale, with entire populations of relatively common species of snowdrops (Galanthus) and Cyclamen being wiped out. Kew’s dedicated staff continue to combine forces to understand and conserve the remarkable diversity of bulbs and other plants. To accompany Bulbmania – Flowers from the Kew Collection there will be associated items from Kew’s Economic Botany Collection together with books from Kew’s Library, Art and Archives Collections.

Portraits of a Garden

New York’s Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society’s Portraits of a Garden will also be on display to celebrate the Garden’s first 100 years as one of the world’s finest urban gardens; it also marks the tenth anniversary of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Florilegium Society.

Fifty of America’s best botanical artists have donated more than 200 paintings and drawings to Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and a selection of these are on display. The Florilegium Society members live all over the United States, and work directly from plants and cuttings grown in the Brooklyn Garden. In this close collaboration between the art of the gardener and the artist, a new portrait of a garden is created.

Hidden Treasure - Paintings from the Shirley Sherwood Collection

Dr. Sherwood will also be exhibiting works from her contemporary collection of botanical art illustrating what occurs under the soil. Paintings include Coral Guest’s Lilium regale painted in 2007 to create a pair with the black Iris ‘Superstition’ that she painted in 2005. These are large scale works and the Lilium regale has been painted life size. The bulbs and roots alone took two months to complete. There will also be an opportunity to see Susannah Blaxhill’s Beetroot which is a favourite of Dr Sherwood and demonstrates how botanical illustration can make a common vegetable look remarkable.

Entrance to the exhibitions is free with entry to the Gardens.

Please contact the gallery for further information on 0208 332 3622 or at shirleysherwoodgallery@kew.org