Marie Selby Botanical Gardens will present Tiffany: The Pursuit of Beauty in Nature as the 2023 installment of its Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series. Opening February 12, 2023, the exhibition—an elaborate living art display integrating horticulture and art installed throughout the Gardens—will showcase the creativity and innovation of the American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933). Tiffany: The Pursuit of Beauty in Nature marks the seventh edition of Selby Gardens’ annual Goldstein Exhibition, which examines the work of major artists through the lens of their connections to nature.
The presentation will feature an array of Tiffany’s acclaimed stained?glass windows and lamps and immersive horticultural displays. Created by Selby Gardens’ horticultural team with the leadership of Chief Museum Curator Dr. David Berry, the installations will be located in the Gardens’ world?famous Tropical Conservatory and throughout the grounds of its 15?acre Downtown Sarasota campus. Hundreds of colorful bromeliads will form floral mosaics of “stained glass” in the landscape, and blooming butterfly plants will enhance the outdoor vignettes. Inside the Tropical Conservatory, vibrant orchids, gesneriads, and bromeliads will enliven stunning displays inspired by Tiffany’s aesthetic. The kaleidoscopic horticultural vignettes will spotlight connections between Tiffany Studios’ output and the natural world—from daffodils and wisteria to dragonflies and lilyponds.
Louis Comfort Tiffany was one of the most influential American artists and designers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He founded Tiffany Studios and served as the first design director of Tiffany & Co., the renowned jewelry and silver firm established by his father, Charles Lewis Tiffany (1812-1902). Louis Comfort Tiffany was closely associated with Art Nouveau, an international style of art and design characterized by organic lines and natural forms. He began his career as a painter, but later turned his attention to decorative arts, particularly stained glass, for which he became best known.
Outstanding examples of Tiffany’s work in various media will be on view in Selby Gardens’ Museum of Botany & the Arts. Generously lent from a private collection, this remarkable group of over 40 lamps, vases, and other objects will be used to tell the story of Tiffany and his studio, which revolutionized glassmaking and elevated the status of American decorative arts at home and abroad.
Tiffany: The Pursuit of Beauty in Nature will be on view at Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus from February 12 through June 25, 2023. A rich schedule of educational programs and special events will be developed to complement the exhibition. Please check the Gardens’ website for further details closer to the opening.
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens provides 45 acres of bayfront sanctuaries connecting people with air plants of the world, native nature, and our regional history. Established in 1973 by forward?thinking women of their time, Selby Gardens is composed of the 15?acre Downtown Sarasota campus and the 30?acre Historic Spanish Point campus in the Osprey area of Sarasota County, Florida. The Downtown Sarasota campus on Sarasota Bay is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads and ferns, and other tropical plants. There is a significant focus on botany, horticulture, education, historical preservation, and the environment. The Historic Spanish Point campus is located less than 10 miles south along Little Sarasota Bay. One of the largest preserves showcasing native Florida plants that is interpreted for and open to the public, it celebrates an archaeological record that encompasses approximately 5,000 years of Florida history. Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is a Smithsonian Affiliate and is also accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. For more information visit www.selby.org
