Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is featuring a pop artist’s take on Monet’s paintings. Roy Lichtenstein created large collages of Monet inspired themes, the haystacks and the waterlilies. As a pop artist, Lichtenstein used contemporary devises, like the dots used to turn drawings into print. He oversized the dots so they became a signature part of his work/play. The blue/green is the iconic Monet color of his house and garden hardscape.
Along side Sarasota Bay flower boxes support the arches of newly planted flowers and vines, which will mature as the exhibit goes on.
Monet’s garden at Giverny features arbors in this iconic blue/green. The Selby staff interpreted this in the Lichtenstein style of wisteria and gate posts with dots.
Bridges in the iconic Monet color are repeating elements at Giverny and Selby. Water lilies are fashioned in the pop Lichtenstein style.
The facade of Monet’s house with its blue/green shutters acts as a backdrop in Selby’s tropical conservatory. Lichtenstein’s pop elements are the hashmarks on the windows and the pink dots on white to represent the pink stucco on Monet’s house.
The conservatory features many brightly colored orchids instead of the annuals and perennials that grow in France. The Lichtenstein/Monet gate serves as a fresh backdrop.
Just as the bridges are repeated elements at Giverny, they are seen throughout Selby. This time in traverses the koi pond where Lichtenstein inspired waterlilies and koi decorate the pond.
Lichtenstein made a pop version of Monet’s haystacks. Monet painted the haystacks at different times of day. Lichtenstein painted different color versions: red, yellow and blue. The Selby staff created one set of haystacks that display yellow from the right and red from the left using wood on the diagonal–another modern art treatment. Long grass was planted in front to express the hay field.
Lichtenstein’s original artworks of the waterlilies and haystacks are being shown in the Payne mansion, a part of the gardens.
Monet created paint boxes in his garden filled with plants and flowers of similar hues to test out the the harmony of the colors. Selby built paint box gardens with a larger than life tube of red paint and a yellow paint brush loaded with green paint, reminiscent of the larger than life pop sculptural objects of Claes Oldenburg.