What’s On
Designers and artists of the applied arts have long been inspired by nature; ordering and arranging plant and animal forms to create attractive objects and patterns. Subject matter, stylisations and approaches change over time responding to fashions, scientific discovery, the inherent properties of materials used and regional variations.
Alison Brown, Curator of European Decorative Art and Design from 1800, will take visitors on a tour of the natural world’s infinite variety as seen through the eyes of 19th- and 20th-century designers and artists whose work is held in Glasgow Museums’ lesser-seen decorative art and design collections in store. Be prepared to be awed by sumptuous encrusted tactile designs created to thrill the senses to powerful stylised simplicity that tames nature through creation of repeat patterns, bold abstraction, ethereal impressionistic meanderings and, sometimes, a little dusting of humour.
Image: Faience vase with seaweed decoration by Doulton & Watt, Lambeth Pottery, 1878. © CSG CIC Glasgow Museums Collection.
