Fine Garden Art, SA

The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the original Lone Star Brewery, an unexpectedly suitable venue.

After attending the San Antonio Flower Festival and visiting the Botanical Garden, I found myself searching out botanical themes and motifs during my visit to the San Antonio Museum of Art too.

Wreath of oak leaves and acorns, Greek, Late Classical or Hellenistic period, 4th - 1st Century BC, Gold:

Fragment of a Pillar, Roman (Augustan period), Late 1st Century BC-early 1st Century AD, Marble. (I darkened the lines in the image below right so some of it would be easier to see online):

The fragment depicts a nest with birds and a delicate flowering vine. According the information on the identification plaque, it may have served to support an outdoor garden sculpture.

Christ Crucified, 18th Century, Artist unknown, Guatemala, polychromed wood:

I love how creators of Latin American religious icons used flowers as an indication of holiness. In some cases, they used flowers where Europeans would have used light to mark a saint.

Container (Vasija) ca. 1925, Artist unknown, Jalisco, Mexico:

This is about a yard tall. I overheard someone say it was fired by a traditional method in the ground, without a modern kiln.

The Urrutia Arch:

"[It] was commissioned by the late Dr. Aureliano Urrutia and once served as the entrance to his opulent estate, Miraflores, located about a mile north of [the museum] on Broadway. The Talavera-style tiles on the front  . . . were made by the famous Uriarte workshop in Puebla, Mexico, in the early 1920s."

All our garden gates should be so nice.

Below are some of the more contemporary pieces that got my attention as a gardener.

Humanscape #57 by Mel Casas, 1969 (The original is not convex as it appears here.):

"When Casas moved from El Paso to San Antonio in 1961, he found that the only accepted style of painting here was the Bluebonnet School, characterized by landscapes showing fields populated with the state flower, but executed in the 19th-Century  style of Impressionism. Believing that the pretty lyricism of Impressionism was in direct contradiction to the rugged qualities of the Texas landscape, Casas critiqued the Bluebonnet school in this painting."

Multiple Mama by Jim Roche, 1967 painted ceramic, floor mat:

Gratitude X 3 by James Cobb, 2007 Giclee prints of work created with Adobe software:

Enter the Marsh by Andrew Young, 1996 Egg tempera on panel:

After we left, very close to the museum, we came upon the oldest Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Texas, where Memorial Day events were under way.

The scene reminded me of Norman Rockwell, my grandmother's favorite artist.