Bloom: Art, Flowers and Emotion

Description

With their delightful colours, incredible natural beauty and fascinating 'otherness', it is no surprise that flowers and plants have long captivated artists. They have come to symbolise a gamut of complex human emotions, including hope, delight, love, compassion, gratitude, grief, and loss. The fragility of flowers is a poignant reminder of the fleeting nature of life. Their sensory appeal - to our sight, smell, touch and even, sometimes, taste - brings us into the present moment, and they can affect our wellbeing in surprisingly healing ways. Bloom is a compendium of one hundred of the most beautiful floral works from Tate's collection. Designed to encourage slow, mindful looking, it will bring reflection, restoration and joy.

Rachel Giles is a writer, editor and lecturer on art, design and architecture. She has worked in-house for The National Gallery, Royal Museums Greenwich and Foster + Partners and freelance for Tate, V&A, Gagosian and many other museums, galleries and arts organisations. Her writing includes The Atlas of Brutalist Architecture which won the New York Times Best Art Book of 2019, and she is currently writing Living in Nature (publishing 2021). She is passionate about plants and flowers and their positive impact on people's wellbeing, and has a cutting garden and allotment in London.