Whilst we were in New York Botanical Garden a few weeks ago we managed to see and experience all four seasons in one day...
Four Seasons is NYBG's current special installation of four gigantic garden sculptures, each being 15 feet tall, to be found in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory Courtyard and will run until the 30th of March next year. The sculptures are the creation of artist Philip Haas and was inspired from the series of paintings of the same name done by Italian renaissance painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo. We're lucky enough to see some of the originals in art galleries in Vienna and Paris on previous trips and it's great to see some of his paintings transformed into giant, vividly colourful, three dimensional sculptures.
Spring
Spring - a handsome fella isn't he?
Each piece, made of fibreglass represents one of the four seasons and are composed of small elements pertaining to the season it represents grouped together to form a unifying figure which in this case are human busts.
Summer
Summer
It was so sunny, bright, and warm then outside the conservatories that when we were actually looking at the sculptures it made staring at them very difficult because of the brightness (the season of summer was the dominant one that day) and we just took pictures hoping that they will turn out fine anyway. Fortunately that was the case and later that evening we were able to study the sculptures in better detail via the photos.
Autumn
Autumn
Winter
Winter
Talk about gigantic and 'grotesque' garden art (in reference to Arcimboldo's style and not a negative connotation)! All sculptures were executed well but I'll have to say I'll always have a soft spot for 'Spring' and 'Summer'.
Mark :-)
