On March 8, 2023 the members of the Orlando Garden Club were invited guests of the Winter Park Garden Club at the Orlando Museum of Art. A special program was presented by Susan Rosoff, and the topic was Beyond Ornamental: The Significance of Flowers in Western Art.
Susan Rosoff previously served as Curator of Education at OMA, in partnership with UCF she taught art history classes based on the OMA’s contemporary art exhibitions, Twentieth Century Art, Art of Last Twenty-Five Years and Non-Western Art. She continues to develop educational material for museums, while directing and coordinating projects through the Florida Dept. of Education and FAAE.
The lecture covered many aspects of flowers such as color, signs of different feelings, such as love, desire, devotion, fidelity, religious ties to the Annunciation and suffering of Christ, Mary Cassatt’s work was exhibited supporting the National American Sufferage Movement and the sexual stigma of Georgia O’Keefe’s work, which in fact she matured form, color and detail.
Works of art were viewed of various artists; Rossetti, Van Dyck, Cassatt, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Rachael Ruysch, Martin Head to Georgia O’Keefe. The earlier art included nosegays, garland, orange blossoms, sunflowers, the lily, roses, bugs and snails. Flowers were once priceless rarities, but are now abundently available. The era of realism, still life, dramatic arrangements and landscapes were viewed.
