Fine Works Of Art, Complemented By Flowers

By Shannon Hicks

HARTFORD — If flowers bring out your allergies, a visit to the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art should not be on your list of things to do next weekend.

For those who enjoy beautiful floral arrangements, however, a trip to the country’s oldest public art museum during the weekend of April 2–4 should be at the top of the schedule. The Women’s Committee of the Wadsworth Atheneum has scheduled its 23rd annual fundraiser and exhibition, “Fine Arts & Flowers,” for that weekend. More than 60 garden clubs from across the state will be setting up original arrangements in the museum’s galleries, creating with flowers and accoutrements their interpretations of artworks in floral arrangements, table settings, and garden vignettes.

The Garden Club of Newtown will be making its second appearance at the weekend festival this year. The 2004 theme is “Design, Décor and Flowers.”

“We had fun last year, so we decided to be brave and try this again,” Garden Club President Debbie Osborne said last week. She and a few members of the club held a brainstorming session at Mrs Osborne’s home. The ladies came up with the idea of using tropical flowers to create an arrangement that will complement their assignment: Bob Thompson’s oil on canvas of 1960, “Garden of Music.” The painting measures approximately 80 inches tall by 140 inches wide.

For their debut last year the members of The Garden Club of Newtown created two arrangements to complement a Monet painting.

Bob Thompson’s large, colorful “Garden of Music” offers an adult look at nude musicians performing in a garden setting. I say “an adult look” because Mr Thompson did not concern himself with detailing the private parts of the men and women he depicted in the large painting, but seemed to think of the scene as a whole. His oeuvre evolved so that, as culturekiosque.com describes, “treatment of landscape became more geometricized, modeling and anatomical details in figures was discarded and the artist’s brushwork became more controlled.”

“Garden of Music” is more concerned with musicians and colors, not naked men and women.

Whether it was the Expressionist artist’s intention to represent people of many colors in Eden is unclear, but what does follow Mr Thompson’s typical style is his presentation of human figures in colors as varied as blue, green, yellow, orange, brown and black.

The late artist, who lived only from 1937 to 1966 yet managed to create nearly 1,000 works during his eight-year run as an artist with a serious intent, died in Rome just shy of his 29th birthday.

“Garden of Music” was created two years after Mr Thompson moved to New York City. He had grown up in Louisville, Ky., and has spent the summer of ’58 in Provincetown, and then moved into the city and embraced a Bohemian lifestyle during the fall of 1958. During this period Mr Thompson also formed friendships with jazz musicians, writers, poets, and fellow artists, all of which strongly influenced his work.

Allan Ginsberg once called Mr Thompson “the most original visionary painter of his day, a first natural American psychedelic colorist.”

The painting being honored by The Garden Club of Newtown was created the same year Mr Thompson had his first solo exhibition, at Delancy Street Museum. “Garden of Music” is part of the Wadsworth’s permanent collection. It was a gift to the museum in 1987 by Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner.

The Garden Club of Newtown will offer a tropical and musical interpretation of Mr Thompson’s painting. There will be plenty of oranges and yellows in their floral selections.

Flowers being considered during last week’s meeting included birds of paradise, protea, lilies and Anthurium. There may also be some palm greens, and a bugle will accompany the arrangement.

“We’ll try to make an arrangement on a table and have it look like someone could just sit down and eat a meal,” Mrs Osborne said. Among the considerations put to each participating garden club is that its arrangement must relate in some way to its assigned painting.

All participants will have two hours prior to the show’s opening Friday morning to put their arrangements together. Connecticut landscapes will also be participating, decorating the fountain in Avery Court and creating displays at the museum’s entryways.

Garden Club of Newtown members participating in “Fine Art & Flowers” this year are Ginnie Carey, Beth Cluff, Carol Garbarino, Alma Kearns, Debbie Osborne, JoAnn Scebold, Mona Steele, and Paula Stephan.

 The weekend-long event is a fundraiser for the museum’s flower committee, which is responsible for the fresh flower arrangements throughout the museum from September through May and on special occasions.

“Fine Art & Flowers” is modeled on “Art in Bloom,” an annual event presented at The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston that will celebrate its 28th appearance the weekend of April 25-27.

Special Events

Tours of “Fine Art & Flowers: Design, Décor and Flowers” will be given at 11:30 am and 1 pm each day.

A lecture and luncheon, “Classic Designs in Modern Times,” will be held on Friday beginning at 11 am. Guest speaker will be the international designer, lecturer, and author Lady Henrietta Spencer-Churchill. Cost is $65 and advance reservations are mandatory. Call Amy Redfield at the museum, 860-278-2670, extension 3041.     

Three floral demonstrations will be offering during the weekend, and each is included with admission.

Freelance designer, lecturer, and accredited judge Sherry L. Sanelli will offer a floral demonstration, “Flowers with Flair,” on Saturday at noon. Ms Sanelli received the 2003 Connecticut Tribute Award for Design from the Federated Garden Clubs of Connecticut.

Tony Palmiere, an accredited member of The American Institute of Floral Designers, will offer “Interpretive Floral Design” on Saturday at 2 pm.

On Sunday at 2 pm, floral designer and special event planner Sandra Lamo will present the final demonstration, “International Flower Arranging.”

A special family program will be offered on Sunday. From 2 to 4 pm, Professor Richard Matt, from Sorghum Institute of Witchcraft and Wizardry, will be in the museum’s Avery Court providing magical entertainment for children of all ages.

A special Fine Art & Flowers boutique will also be set up for the weekend.

“Fine Art & Flowers” will be open Friday, April 2, from 11 am to 5 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, April 3 and 4, from 10 am to 5 pm.

General admission to the museum is $12 for adults, $10 seniors, $8 students, and $3 for ages 2 to 12.

Saturday free hours will not apply during the fundraising event. Also, while museum admission will include entry to most current exhibitions in addition to “Fine Art & Flowers,” visitors wishing to the new exhibition “kid size: The Material World of Childhood” will be asked to pay an additional $6 special exhibitions fee.

Group tours can be arranged, with discount admission available for groups of ten or more.

Wadsworth Atheneum, at 600 Main Street, can by calling at 860-278-2670  (TDD 860-278-0294) or going online to www.WadsworthAtheneum.org.