Flowers Forever Flowers in Art and Culture February 3–August 27, 2023 About the exhibition February 3–August 27, 2023 With their splendor and diversity flowers have always captivated us. They possess great symbolic power – whether in mythology, religion, art or politics. In earlier centuries, flowers were coveted status symbols, today they are traded globally as a mass product. Currently, the flower is coming into focus as a fragile yet indispensable component of our global eco-system. With objects from art, design, fashion and natural science, Flowers Forever offers a fascinating, elaborately staged tour through the cultural history of flowers from antiquity to the present day. The presentation comprises around one hundred and seventy works from international collections as well as installations created especially for the exhibition. Important examples from the histories of art and design enter into a fruitful dialog with new artistic approaches. The exhibition features works by Jan Brueghel the Younger, Abraham Mignon, Barbara Regina Dietzsch, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Hannah Höch, Andreas Gursky, Miguel Chevalier, Ann Carrington, Patricia Kaersenhout, Kehinde Wiley, DRIFT, and many other artists. They all bring the multifaceted cultural history of flowers to life in impressive ways. More Less Exhibition Leaflet Dante Gabriel Rossetti Venus Verticordia, 1864–1868 Oil on canvas, 81,3 x 68 cm Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum Kehinde Wiley Portrait of a Florentine Nobleman III, 2019 Oil on canvas, 144 x 114 cm Collection Vilsmeier – Linhares, Munich © Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London Lawrence Alma-Tadema The Roses of Heliogabalus, 1888 Oil on Canvas 132,7 x 214,4 cm Colección Pérez Simón, Mexiko © Studio Sébert Photographes Jan Brueghel t. Y. Satire of Tulipomania, 1640 Oil on panel, 31 x 49 cm Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, purchased with the support of the Rembrandt Society Photo: Tom Haartsen Abraham Mignon Vase of Flower, ca. 1665 Oil on canvas, 87,7 x 68,3 cm Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam Photo: Studio Tromp Kristian Zahrtmann Adam in Paradise, 1914 Oil on canvas, 125 x 106 cm Private collection Photo: Den Hirschsprungske Samling Unknown (Egypt) Stele of Nena, c. 1300 B.C. Limestone, 77 x 51 x 9 cm Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, Munich, ÄS 51, Photo: Roy Hessing Sir Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris The Pilgrim in the Garden or The Heart of the Rose, design before 1896, production 1901 Wool, cotton warp, silk, 155 x 201 cm Badisches Landesmuseum, Photo: Thomas Goldschmidt Dante Gabriel Rossetti Venus Verticordia, 1864–1868 Oil on canvas, 81,3 x 68 cm Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum Kehinde Wiley Portrait of a Florentine Nobleman III, 2019 Oil on canvas, 144 x 114 cm Collection Vilsmeier – Linhares, Munich © Kehinde Wiley. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London Lawrence Alma-Tadema The Roses of Heliogabalus, 1888 Oil on Canvas 132,7 x 214,4 cm Colección Pérez Simón, Mexiko © Studio Sébert Photographes Jan Brueghel t. Y. Satire of Tulipomania, 1640 Oil on panel, 31 x 49 cm Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, purchased with the support of the Rembrandt Society Photo: Tom Haartsen Abraham Mignon Vase of Flower, ca. 1665 Oil on canvas, 87,7 x 68,3 cm Collection Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam Photo: Studio Tromp Kristian Zahrtmann Adam in Paradise, 1914 Oil on canvas, 125 x 106 cm Private collection Photo: Den Hirschsprungske Samling Unknown (Egypt) Stele of Nena, c. 1300 B.C. Limestone, 77 x 51 x 9 cm Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst, Munich, ÄS 51, Photo: Roy Hessing Sir Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris The Pilgrim in the Garden or The Heart of the Rose, design before 1896, production 1901 Wool, cotton warp, silk, 155 x 201 cm Badisches Landesmuseum, Photo: Thomas Goldschmidt Audio Tour A free audio tour (EN/DE) is available for the exhibition. It can be accessed from home and in the exhibition with your own mobile device. Please bring your own headphones when you visit the exhibition. Start the Audio Tour Catalog Flowers Forever Flowers Forever (German edition) is the first exhibition catalog to deal with the art and cultural history of flowers from antiquity to the present day on this scale and in an interdisciplinary manner. Three large-scale interdisciplinary dialogues open inspiring and differentiated insights into the cultural history of flowers on the topics of flowers as symbol, flowers as motif, and flowers as commodity. Short texts also accompany selected objects to explain their context and relevance to the theme. Sold out at the Kunsthalle Edited by Roger Diederen and Franziska Stöhr. With contributions by Andreas Beyer, Michael John Gorman, Gudrun Kadereit, Isabel Kranz, Inger Leemans, Randy Malamud, Silke Peters, and D. Fairchild Ruggles. 288 pages, 24 x 29 cm, 275 color images, hardcover, available in German, published by Prestel Verlag. More Less View into the exhibition by BR Capriccio Flower Power Festival Munich 2023 Celebrating nature in the city Based on the Flowers Forever exhibition at the Flower Power Festival Munich 2023 everything revolves around blossoms. After the nationally sensational Faust Festival 2018, this is the second major event in the Bavarian capital in which everyone can participate. Science, sustainability, plant diversity, garden art, climate change, biodiversity, aesthetics, quality of life – these and many more are conceivable topics that will be staged, be it with exhibitions, workshops, walks, theatre performances, installations and more. Indoors, outdoors and digitally are the festival’s playgrounds. The Kunsthalle München, the Gasteig, Europe’s largest cultural centre, the Munich-Nymphenburg Botanical Garden and the BIOTOPIA – Bavaria’s Natural History Museum are the impetus behind the festival. Many actors can identify with the themes of nature, culture, city and blossom, which describe the core idea of the festival. There are hardly any limits to creativity. Anyone and everyone can participate. In addition to participation, inclusion will play an important role this time. The festival offers the chance to sensitise many people to the topic and at the same time to enable as many people as possible to participate in cultural life. Ideally, this could result in sustainable impulses that move something in our society in the long term. More Less More about the festival Program All events available here. Magazine Interesting people and projects and a look behind the scenes. The Munich Flower Extravaganza We needed over 100,000 dried flowers for a major installation by artist Rebecca Louise Law. Everyone was invited to collect flowers – whether purchased bouquets or flowers from their own gardens – and bring them dried to the Kunsthalle by fall 2022. In addition, many local volunteers helped us prepare the flowers for installation. To have enough space for this, a disused swimming pool in Munich was specially hijacked. Portrait of Rebecca Louise Law by ttt – titel thesen temperamente Children & Young People Booklet for Children available free of charge at the ticket desk, 8–12 years (in German) Guided tours for children during school vacations (in German) Workshops at the Kinderkunsthaus during school vacations, 6–15 years Partner Newsletter Current information about the exhibitions at Kunsthalle München.
