Far be it from me to pass judgment on floral arrangements. This one was awarded first prize at Art In Bloom. I like the fact that its gallery has windows overlooking the museum’s central great hall. The painting the arrangement refers to is on the opposite wall, https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/1449/ .
Max Beckmann was an important German artist of the first half of the 20th Century. Like so many others, he fled the Nazis and eventually ended up here. He worked and taught for the last three years of his life at Washington University in St. Louis. Our art museum has a major collection of his work, including a large room exclusively devoted to him. I think the floral arrangement refers to this picture, https://www.slam.org/collection/objects/13448/, not the one shown here.
Not the flowers, actually. I mean, I like flowers as well as the next person but it’s not really my department. The painting on the wall, though, is one of my favorites in the St. Louis Art Museum, a 1908 work by the American Paul Cornoyer, The Plaza After Rain. The place is at the southeast corner of Central Park in New York, looking south along Fifth Avenue. It brings up sentimental feelings for my home town.
It’s become a local tradition. In late winter, our art museum puts on an event called Art In Bloom. Expert floral arrangers are invited to create a design inspired by one of the pieces from the collection. This year there were thirty-some entries. It can be horrifically crowded, but the museum opens to members two hours early on the first morning. It’s the onlly time worth going.
