The Language of Flowers
MARCH x Reyes | Finn
Feb 19–April 16, 2021
MARCH is pleased to present The Language of Flowers, a rediscovery of Madame Charlotte de Latour’s guide, Le Langage des Fleurs, through the works of nine American artists. The text, which assigns meaning to an entire index of plants, provides a symbolic methodology for conveying hidden feelings. Conversely, the flowers in these artworks offer their own messages up for interpretation as each artist creates an iconography all their own.
So begins the preface to Madame Charlotte de Latour’s* Le Langage des Fleurs, a volume dedicated to floral symbolism, published in Paris circa 1819. Organized by seasons that are further divided into months, de Latour’s volume attempted to make plain the hidden meanings of flowers, formerly the purview of artists, writers, and poets. De Latour hired Pancrace Bessa, a student of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, to illustrate the book, pairing his engravings with descriptions of each plant’s allegorical meaning. The effect is satisfying as the author provides simple definitions for concepts that are both culturally specific and personal—and constantly evolving. Taking inspiration from the book, The Language of Flowers at Reyes Finn gathers together floral-themed works by Hayley Barker, Thornton Dial, Kevin Ford, Mike Goodlett, Lonnie Holley, Claudia Keep, Charles Steffen, Emily Ludwig Shaffer, and Aaron Michael Skolnick, presented alongside wall text derived from Latour’s original dictionary of floral language… read more
Installation view, The Language of Flowers, MARCH x Reyes | Finn, Detroit, 2021
“Heureuse la jeune fille qui ignore les folles joies du monde, et ne connaît pas de plus douce occupation que l’étude des plantes.”
– Madame Charlotte de Latour, Le Langage des Fleurs, c. 1819
Aaron Michael Skolnick, Study for Conscience Sweet Like Honey, 2020 (detail)
Aaron Michael Skolnick
Study for Conscience Sweet Like Honey, 2020
Colored pencil on paper
12.75 x 9.75 inches
Thornton Dial, Yesterday’s Roses (Accepting the Truth), 2014 (detail)
Thornton Dial
Yesterday’s Roses (Accepting the Truth), 2014
Mixed media on canvas on wood
60 x 48 inches
Thornton Dial
To Pass Through and be Gone, 2013
Mixed media on canvas on wood
61 x 66 inches
Dial’s is a world of dynamic gesture, where each drawing fixes a continuous stream of action for a moment, much the way a photograph freezes flowing water and in that stilled instant reveals the unceasing agitation of liquid twisting and tumbling.
– Bernard L. Herman,
Thornton Dial: Works On Paper, 2011
Installation view, The Language of Flowers, MARCH x Reyes | Finn, Detroit, 2021
Charles Steffen
Untitled (Standing Male Nude, Sunflower Nude, Holding a Sunflower), 1994
Colored pencil and graphite on paper
40 x 24 inches
Charles Steffen
Untitled (Dominga’s Tigerlily), 1994
Colored pencil and graphite on taped steno paper
12 x 8.5 inches
Hayley Barker, Lorimer Street Rose New Moon, 2021 (detail)
“The flower garden [Barker’s] tableau leads us into and through is a chromatic symphony all the more seductive for the fact that the artist has applied her colors so lightly, so sparingly. “
– Barry Schwabsky, Artforum, 2021
Lonnie Holley, We Believe in Change, 2020 (detail)
“Spend a little time with Lonnie Holley, and you start to see the world differently. You slip into a dream state, a place where objects have a force and undeniable power. A place where everything and everyone is electrified, energized, and connected.”
– Natalie Baszile, The Bitter Southerner, 2018 (Author & Filmmaker)
Emily Ludwig Shaffer, Wood and Trees, 2021 (detail)
“(Schaffer’s) compositions effuse a careful balance, presenting elements which both challenge and control one another. This facilitates a productive tension, drawing this viewer back into the painted surfaces in an attempt to discern the visual flows suggested within them.”
– Dmitry Strakovsky, Under Main, 2019
The Language of Flowers
MARCH x Reyes | Finn
Curated by Phillip March Jones
Feb 19–April 16, 2021
So begins the preface to Madame Charlotte de Latour’s* Le Langage des Fleurs, a volume dedicated to floral symbolism, published in Paris circa 1819. Organized by seasons that are further divided into months, de Latour’s volume attempted to make plain the hidden meanings of flowers, formerly the purview of artists, writers, and poets. De Latour hired Pancrace Bessa, a student of Pierre-Joseph Redouté, to illustrate the book, pairing his engravings with descriptions of each plant’s allegorical meaning. The effect is satisfying as the author provides simple definitions for concepts that are both culturally specific and personal—and constantly evolving. Taking inspiration from the book, The Language of Flowers at Reyes Finn gathers together floral-themed works by Hayley Barker, Thornton Dial, Kevin Ford, Mike Goodlett, Lonnie Holley, Claudia Keep, Charles Steffen, Emily Ludwig Shaffer, and Aaron Michael Skolnick, presented alongside wall text derived from Latour’s original dictionary of floral language
The nine artists featured in this exhibition have a deep relationship to the subject of flowers. Indeed, when the collector and scholar Bill Arnett arrived at Thornton Dial’s studio in 1987, a single flower was painted on the door, a symbol of the room as a place where creativity and ideas were free to exist without judgement. It is in this spirit that we have invited the participating artists to create works specifically for the exhibition which includes multiple renderings of roses in various states of being by Claudia Keep, oil-based snapshots of plant life emerging from Houston’s sidewalks by Aaron Michael Skolnick, and somewhat formal plant portraits by Kevin Ford. Using plants and flowers as tools, Lonnie Holley has created spray-painted bouquets while Mike Goodlett has grown his own version of floral statuary in concrete and Hydrostone. Emily Ludwig Shaffer and Hayley Barker have painted variations of the rose that both affirm and question their conventional beauty. The exhibition also looks back at the artist Charles Steffen’s obsession with Sunflower Nudes, anthropomorphic drawings of his own creation featuring human-like plants based on Redon’s paintings that he had seen during visits to the Art Institute of Chicago.
De Latour’s definitions are occasionally conventional but mostly surprising to the modern reader. An open rose signifies beauty. A thistle evokes austerity. Peonies carry shame. Basil is tinged with hate but olive branches maintain peace. Cypress carries news of death. And the lotus flower retains her eloquence. At the time of publication, de Latour’s book represented a roadmap to navigating around strict Victorian-era etiquette by providing agreed-upon definitions for the meaning of flowers that were given to communicate emotions that could not be expressed freely in words. Today, we are, of course, openly encouraged to communicate our feelings, perhaps to a fault, but the need for subtle communication still exists, and artists may be the ones again laying claim to the allegorical, metaphorical, and spiritual nature of flowers.
*Charlotte de Latour is believed to be the nom de plume of Louise Cortambert.
The Language of Flowers is on view at Reyes | Finn from February 19–April 16, 2021.
Reyes | Finn
1500 Trumbull Avenue
Detroit, MI 48216
Hours: Wednesday–Saturday from 12–6 PM and by appointment.
For more information: info@marchgallery.org
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Claudia Keep
Untitled (Rose), 2020
Watercolor on paper
6 x 8 inches
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Claudia Keep
Untitled (Rose), 2020
Watercolor on paper
6 x 8 inches
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Claudia Keep
Untitled (Rose), 2020
Watercolor on paper
6 x 8 inches
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Claudia Keep
Untitled (Rose), 2020
Watercolor on paper
6 x 8 inches
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Claudia Keep
Untitled (Rose), 2020
Watercolor on paper
6 x 8 inches
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Claudia Keep
Untitled (Rose), 2020
Watercolor on paper
6 x 8 inches
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Thornton Dial
Yesterday’s Roses (Accepting the Truth), 2014
Mixed media on canvas on wood
60 x 48 inches
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Thornton Dial
To Pass Through and Be Gone, 2014
Mixed media on canvas on wood
61 x 66 inches
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Thornton Dial
Beautifying, 2008
Graphite and pastel on paper
26 x 19.75 inches
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Thornton Dial
Beautifying, 2008
Graphite and pastel on paper
26 x 19.75 inches
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Thornton Dial
Staying Young, 2008
Graphite and pastel on paper
26 x 19.75 inches
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Aaron Michael Skolnick
Study for Conscience Sweet Like Honey, 2020
Colored pencil on paper
12.75 x 9.75 inches
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Aaron Michael Skolnick
Study for Conscience Sweet Like Honey, 2020
Colored pencil on paper
12.75 x 9.75 inches
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Aaron Michael Skolnick
Woman Left Lonely, 2021
Oil on linen
24 x 18 inches
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Aaron Michael Skolnick
Always on My Way, 2021
Oil on linen
24 x 18 inches
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Aaron Michael Skolnick
Untitled, 2021
Oil on linen
24 x 18 inches
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Hayley Barker
Lorimer Street Rose New Moon, 2021
Oil on linen
20 x 13 inches
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Hayley Barker
Lorimer Street Rose, 2021
Oil on linen
20 x 13 inches
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Mike Goodlett
Good Morning 1, 2021
Spray paint and graphite on paper
24 x 18 inches
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Mike Goodlett
Good Morning 2, 2021
Spray paint and graphite on paper
24 x 18 inches
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Lonnie Holley
Untitled, 2020
Spray paint and enamel on paper
24 x 18 inches
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Lonnie Holley
Untitled, 2020
Spray paint and enamel on paper
24 x 18 inches
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Lonnie Holley
We Believe in the Change, 2020
Spray paint on paper
30 x 22 inches
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Lonnie Holley
My Head is a Flower Pot, 2020
Spray paint on paper
28.5 x 22.5 inches
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Charles Steffen
Untitled (Standing Male Nude, Sunflower Nude, Holding a Sunflower), 1994
Colored pencil and graphite on paper
40 x 24 inches
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Charles Steffen
Untitled (Dominga’s Tigerlily), 1994
Colored pencil and graphite on taped steno paper
12 x 8.5 inches
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Emily Ludwig Shaffer
Wood and Trees, 2021
Oil on canvas
52 x 42 inches
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Kevin Ford
Lone Orchid, 2019
Acrylic and flashe on panel
30 x 24 inches
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Kevin Ford
White Flowers, 2018
Acrylic and canvas mounted on board
12.75 x 16.75 inches
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Kevin Ford
Black Tulips, 2020
Acrylic on panel
24 x 18 inches
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Kevin Ford
Garden, 2020
Acrylic on panel
24 x 15 inches