Whether you’re a lifelong admirer of Vincent Van Gogh or just someone who appreciates the charm of a sunflower, the New York Botanical Garden’s summer exhibit is worth the 27-minute drive from Rye.
Now through October 26, “Van Gogh’s Flowers” invites visitors to step into the world of one of history’s most beloved artists, where paintings blossom into gardens and sculptures bloom like brushstrokes come to life.
Before you enter the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory — the heart of the exhibit — you’ll encounter “Sunflower Pyramid,” an installation by sculptor Cyril Lancelin. Along a winding path, real sunflowers (and hundreds of other living flowers in full bloom that had inspired Van Gogh) mix with surreal giant sunflowers made of steel, foam, cork, and other sculptural material. Visitors can move around the sunflower artwork, mirroring Van Gogh’s process of contemplating his subjects from every angle before lifting his brush.
Van Gogh was obsessed with sunflowers. In 1888, he painted most of his 11 iconic sunflower works in a single week, determined to fill an entire studio with their presence. In a letter to his brother Theo, he wrote of his hope to be remembered as “the painter of sunflowers.” Today, that wish has been fulfilled probably beyond his imagination.
Before reaching the main exhibition space, you can step into “Starry Night.” Set inside a massive picture frame, a swirling painted sky of stars and a glowing moon made of yellow flowers surrounds you.
Inside the soaring glass dome of the Haupt Conservatory, the exhibit begins with “Irises on Yellow Columns,” an installation by Graphic Rewilding, an artist duo whose mission is to create positive art in urban spaces. The piece brings Van Gogh’s “Irises” painting into three-dimensional life, printed on towering columns that rise from a reflective pool, their oversized forms shimmering in reflection.
Just beyond the Conservatory’s iris columns, artist and metal sculptor Amie Jacobsen recreates Van Gogh’s still-life paintings — oleanders, roses, and irises — as dynamic painted steel sculptures, set among vibrant, living plantings meticulously designed and cultivated by the garden’s horticultural experts. In “Imperial Fritillaries in a Copper Vase” (1886), for example, orange blooms explode from a sculpted copper vase, set against a backdrop of blue fescue, a flower native to the French countryside that Van Gogh once roamed.
“These sculptures are much larger in scale so that you feel that you’re stepping into a living gallery,” says Joanna Gorke, the botanical garden’s vice president for exhibitions and programming. “The backdrops where you would have seen washes of color that Van Gogh used in his work, our horticulturists have come in and created the color contrast and that vibration of color with complementary plantings. It’s really a compelling way to experience these works.”
The exhibit culminates in a re-creation of the garden Van Gogh viewed from the hospital where he lived in 1889 following a mental health crisis. “I know very well that not a single flower was drawn, that they are just little licks of color,” he wrote to his sister Willemina, “… but the impression of all those colors against one another is nonetheless there in the painting as it is in nature.”
Under the conservatory dome, those “licks of color” — red, yellow, blue, violet, white, pink flowers — swirl into a living canvas that blurs the line between art and nature.
As you exit the conservatory and explore the grounds, you’ll find fields of sunflowers in a stunning array of shapes and styles, all belonging to the Asteraceae family, known for their signature brownish central discs and radiant yellow petals.
“We’re actually going to have fields of sunflowers blooming all summer long, which is really wonderful — we’ll have thousands,” said Gorke. “Some will grow to over six feet tall, while others are smaller, shrubbier plants with multiple flowering stems. As you look across the lawn, you’ll see a remarkable diversity of forms and varieties … you might be surprised by just how much range this plant family offers.”
Complementing “Van Gogh’s Flowers” are daytime programs that encourage visitors to see nature through Van Gogh’s eyes. On select Fridays from 7 to 10 p.m., “Starry Nights” invites guests to enjoy the exhibition in the glow of evening, with live music and Van Gogh-themed drone shows that bring “The Starry Night” to life in the night sky.
Visit NYBG.org for tickets and to plan your visit.
