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Floral arrangement in Institute gallery. Photo by Frank Reynolds.

Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, the Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection 23 October 2009–29 January 2010 The exhibition Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, the Alisa and Isaac M. Sutton Collection represents one of the finest private collections of contemporary botanical art in America. These 54 artworks are expressions of the purely aesthetic forms found in nature and a reminder that we are stewards of our natural resources for future generations. Isaac Sutton’s love of nature and concern for the environment led him to a crossroads in his collection. Since the 1980s he had been acquiring landscape paintings that were reminiscent of his childhood summers spent in the mountains of Lebanon and his early adult years in Israel. In 1997 he was introduced to botanical art through The Shirley Sherwood Collection of Contemporary Botanical Art exhibition at the National Arts Club in New York. He was struck by the artistic virtuosity of the paintings and felt an immediate connection to the plant subjects portrayed. Soon after he began to develop his own collection in this genre while discovering the work of artists in the triennial International Exhibition of Botanical Art & Illustration at the Hunt Institute, in the annual exhibits of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) at the Horticultural Society of New York, and in galleries and botanical gardens in the United States and abroad. Isaac Sutton collects botanical art for its aesthetic impact. He appreciates an artist’s ability to capture not only the beauty of a plant specimen but also its distinct form and function with scientific accuracy while filtering it through his or her own sensibility. Over time he has become interested in how the subjects of the paintings represent an important part of our ecosystem. The title of the exhibit, Botanicals: Environmental Expressions in Art, echoes the role that the botanical artist plays in documenting rare and endangered plants and common plants that play an important role in our planet’s biodiversity. Also of importance is the role that the collector and the museum plays in supporting and validating the vision of these botanical artists by sharing it with the public through exhibitions. Sutton feels that botanical art should be recognized as the melding of art and science that both inspires and educates. The exhibition includes 54 artworks by 40 artists from Australia, Belgium, Cuba, England, France, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, Scotland, South Africa and the United States. The artists are Beverly Allen, Timothy Angell, Anita Barley, Leslie Berge, Susannah Blaxill, Svetlana Boucher, Beverly Duncan, Jean Emmons, Damodar Lal Gurjar, Regine Hagedorn, Celia Hegedüs, Kyoto Katayama, Martha Kemp, Karen Kluglein, Katie Lee, Angela Lober, David Mackay, Fiona McGlynn, Elaine Musgrave, Kate Nessler, Patricia Newman, Susan Ogilvy, Hillary Landemare Parker, John Pastoriza-Piñol, Rachel Pedder-Smith, Rodella Purves, Kelly Leahy Radding, Celia Rosser, Adèle Rossetti Morosoni, James Sain, Lizzie Sanders, Muriel Sandler, Hiroe Sasaki, Alan Singer, Peta Stockton, Jessica Tcherepnine, Vicki Thomas, Bronwyn Van de Graaff, Catherine Watters and Carol Woodin. The exhibition will be on display on the 5th floor of the Hunt Library building at Carnegie Mellon University. Hours: Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–noon and 1–5 p.m.; Sunday, 1–4 p.m. (except 26–29 November and 18 December 2009–3 January 2010). We will also open on Saturday, 31 October, 1–5 p.m., during Carnegie Mellon’s homecoming. The exhibition is open to the public free of charge. A fully illustrated color catalog of the exhibition will be available in late summer 2009. For further information, contact the Hunt Institute at 412-268-2434. A travel exhibition of this collection will be available in June 2010. For booking information, please contact: susan.freinathan@verizon.net.

The Sutton Dogwood, gouache on paper by Katie Lee, 2001. © 2001 Katie Lee All Rights Reserved	Opium poppy bunch, tempera on burnished paper by Damodar Lal Gurjar, 1997. © 1997 Damodar Lal Gurjar All Rights Reserved
Rosa roxburghii ‘Plena’ (China), watercolor on paper by Regine Hagedorn, 2005. © 2005 Regine Hagedorn All Rights Reserved	Musa paradisiaca, Banana flower and fruit, watercolor on paper by Beverly Allen, 2002. © 2002 Beverly Allen All Rights Reserved

Autumn Magnolia, watercolor on vellum by Karen Kluglein, 2007. © 2007 Karen Kluglein All Rights Reserved

Past exhibitions For a listing of previous exhibitions held at the Hunt Institute, please visit the Past exhibitions page in the History section.

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