Begun in 2015, this immersive exhibition series led by Carol Ockman, Ph.D., curator-at-large for Selby Gardens, examines master artists and their relationships to nature in the context of a botanical garden. Seeing master works of art—often on loan from major art institutions around the world—in a garden setting awakens new comparisons in viewers’ minds. The 2020 exhibition in the series, Salvador Dalí: Gardens of the Mind, transformed the Downtown Sarasota campus into a surrealist wonderland.
Roy Lichtenstein: Monet’s Garden Goes Pop!
February 13 to June 27, 2021, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
This exhibition showcases the legendary Pop artist’s screen prints based on Monet’s world-famous paintings of waterlilies and haystacks. Lichtenstein’s rarely seen Water Lilies and Haystacks provide an unexpected homage to a staple of the public imagination — Monet’s paintings of his garden and home at Giverny that inspired them.
The display of Lichtenstein’s art in the midst of a horticultural evocation of Giverny creates a unique experience for more than 100,000 garden visitors. Selby Gardens, transformed into Monet’s famed gardens at Giverny through the Pop Art lens of Roy Lichtenstein, includes iconic elements of Monet’s garden such as the green Japanese bridge, trellises, and benches. This conjuring of Lichtenstein’s world also serves as the dynamic backdrop to the lush plantings and mixed borders for which Monet’s paintings were renowned. An avid gardener, Monet once said, “My garden is my most beautiful masterpiece.” Marie Selby Botanical Gardens evokes this crowning achievement with a surprising Pop Art twist.
Read the press release here.
Conceptual Rendering for Horticultural Vignette of Lichtenstein’s take on Monet’s Japanese Bridge and Waterlilies at Selby Gardens’ Koi Pond
Photo Courtesy of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
Conceptual Rendering for Horticultural Vignette of Lichtenstein’s take on Monet’s Arbors at Selby Gardens’ bayfront
Photo Courtesy of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens
Roy Lichtenstein. Water Lilies with Willows, 1992.
Screen print enamel on stainless steel, 58 x 104 in.
Collection Pérez Art Museum Miami, gift from the Collection of Mary M. and Sash A. Spencer
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein. Water Lilies with Clouds, 1992.
Screenprint on enamel on stainless steel, 65.41 x 44.76 in.
Norton Museum of Art
© Estate of Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein, Haystack (yellow) 1969.
Screenprint on Fabiano wove
14 3/8 x 17 ¼ in
Private Collection, New York
Laurie Lambrecht
Photograph of Roy working on a collage for his Water Lilies with Japanese Bridge, 1992, in his Southampton studio
Photograph, 1992.
©Laurie Lambrecht, 1992
Lead Sponsors
Digital Sponsor:
Major Sponsors: Beverly and Bob Bartner; Better-Gro; BMO Private Bank; Ed and Betsy Cohen/Arête Foundation; Gold Coast Eagle Distributing; Ernest R. Kretzmer; Flora Major; Cornelia and J. Richard Matson; The Westin; and Williams Parker Harrison Dietz & Getzen.
Supporting Sponsors: James and Maryann Armour Foundation; Linnie E. Dalbeck Memorial Foundation; First Home Bank; Jean Weidner Goldstein; Teri A Hansen; Marcy and Michael Klein; Katherine and Frank Martucci; Keith D. Monda; Jennifer and Rob Rominiecki; Hobart and Janis Swan; and Total Wine & More.
Additional Sponsors: Susan and Jim Buck; David A. Hagelstein and Stephen Heffron; Now That’s a Wrap; Marcia Jean Taub and Peter Swain; State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.
Paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax Revenue.