Nature has been an enduring subject for artists across time and cultures. From the bulls painted in the Lascaux caves and Palace of Knossos, to the garden frescoes at Pompeii, Dutch still lifes, 19th-century botanical studies and 21st-century land art projects, nature has been either a simple fact of life or a source of curiosity, consolation and spiritual regeneration. Flora and Fauna: 400 Years of Artists Inspired by Nature explores the natural world through paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and crafted objects. Responding to the richness and fecundity of plant life and the creatures that occupy these spaces, the artists express nature’s complexity and fragility in a variety of ways, from the epic and analytical to the detailed and intimate.
This exceptionally varied exhibition, drawn mainly from the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, features 76 works dating from the 16th to the 21st centuries. Presenting a wide variety of media, scale and style, from the quiet and contemplative to the bold and the audacious, it presents the work of many great Canadian and international artists, including Lorraine Gilbert, Aganetha and Richard Dyck, Geoffrey James, Lucian Freud, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Frederick Evans, and Shary Boyle