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Final Month: Roy Lichtenstein: Monet’s Garden Goes Pop!

As Monet’s Pop Art garden comes to an end, visitors will soon enjoy African American landscape painters of mid-century Florida at Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus.

Presented by Marie Selby Botanical Gardens June 11, 2021

Pop! Goes the Conservatory. Location: Tropical Conservatory. Photo Courtesy Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

View Pop Art icon Roy Lichtenstein’s take on Monet’s garden at Roy Lichtenstein: Monet’s Garden Goes Pop! before its final day on June 27 at Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus.

Roy Lichtenstein made his name by applying his Pop Art interpretation to cultural icons. He was also fascinated by landscapes and the popular art form of Impressionism. Starting in the 1960s, he paid homage to—and radically reimagined—Monet’s Impressionist works, including Monet’s water lilies and haystacks. Within the Museum of Botany & the Arts, viewers may admire Lichtenstein’s Water Lilies series and his Haystack series, as well as archival photographs of Lichtenstein at work and at home.

A Pond That Pops. Location: Koi Pond. Photo Courtesy Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Roy Lichtenstein: Monet’s Garden Goes Pop! is an immersive experience that places you within Claude Monet’s paintings of his garden and surroundings at Giverny but through the lens of Roy Lichtenstein. In addition to the display of Lichtenstein’s large-scale, rarely seen artworks, the Downtown Sarasota campus’s 15 acres are transformed into Monet’s garden at Giverny as imagined through the aesthetic of Lichtenstein. Familiar components of Monet’s garden at Giverny appear at Selby Gardens—but with a new spin—including an iconic Japanese Bridge that looks as if Lichtenstein painted it and a mix of 2-D and 3-D elements that playfully reimagine Monet’s home. These surprising intersections between Impressionism and Pop Art engage visitors as they move through the gardens en route to the Museum of Botany & the Arts.

Musée de Botanique et des arts. Location: Payne Mansion’s Museum of Botany & the Arts. Photo Courtesy Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Admission to Roy Lichtenstein: Monet’s Garden Goes Pop! is included with all-access admission to Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus: $25 adults, $15 children 4–17, and free for members.

Mary Anne Carroll, Royal Poinciana. Courtesy of The Asselstine Collection

Beginning July 10, the Museum of Botany & the Arts at the Downtown Sarasota campus will showcase We Dream A World: African American Landscape Painters of Mid-Century Florida, The Highwaymen. Exploring the depth of art and business enterprise created by a unique set of landscape artists, guest curator Radiah Harper will take visitors through the experience of African Americans who, living in a hostile climate of racial injustice, were able to both learn their artistic craft through formal and informal education, and successfully break away from traditional field labor jobs to monetize their work.

Harold Newton, Palm on the River. Oil on Upson board. Courtesy Roger Lightle

In all, more than two dozen African American artists embraced a style of bright, bold colors focused on natural landscapes, preserving images of old Florida for future generations. Their painting technique is distinct, and while shunned from the traditional mainstream art market due to the practice of segregation, the artists’ ingenuity to sell directly to customers quickly resulted in a proliferation of their art in waiting rooms, lobbies, and homes throughout the east coast of Florida.

We Dream A World: African American Landscape Painters of Mid-Century Florida, The Highwaymen is proudly presented in collaboration with the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition.

The exhibition is included with regular admission to Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus and is free to members of Selby Gardens and the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition.

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Roy Lichtenstein: Monet’s Garden Goes Pop! Presenting Sponsors are Drs. Joel Morganroth and Gail Morrison Morganroth; Lead Sponsors are Amicus Foundation, Gulf Coast Community Foundation, and Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

We Dream A World: African American Landscape Painters of Mid-Century Florida, The Highwaymen is sponsored by Isabel Becker and Williams Parker Harrison Dietz & Getzen.

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