Nature and Art - A Tiffany Inspired Exhibit at Selby Gardens

We all appreciate the finer things in life, such as good wine and cuisine, the opportunity to travel, good friends and loving family. For aficionados of Art, it was a unique experience to view and appreciate the “visual displays of Tiffany: The Pursuit of Beauty in Nature Exhibit” at the Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota.

The masterful artistry of Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) celebrated in Pursuit of Beauty in Nature marks the seventh installment in Selby Garden’s annual Jean and Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series. It examines major artists through their connection with nature. This exhibit celebrates one of the most influential American artists and designers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tiffany described his lifelong goal as “the pursuit of beauty” and believed that inspiration for art and design should be found in nature. The Selby Gardens Tiffany Exhibit is the first of its type to be presented in the natural setting of a botanical garden.  

Throughout the garden, Tiffany stained-glass windows and lamps are celebrated with seven iconic nature-inspired designs and their organic connection with nature. For me and many others, stained glass is about churches and monasteries or older religious buildings. I remember as a child attending services at an old Spanish church, and the best part for me was looking up at the stained-glass windows and following the light patterns reflected on the old, tiled floor below.

I visited Selby Gardens with two good friends from Marco Island, and the experience was similar to one visiting an old familiar church – it was celebrating the dazzling effects of the colored stained glass on the plantings below, around and high above the ground.

At the Lead Beds, the plantings of mosses, orchids and shade-loving plants were framed by the brightly colored glass of Tiffany lamps and windows. At the Succulent Garden, the silhouettes of stately Pachypodium and Century Agave plants created a striking interplay with colored Tiffany-inspired panels.

Sunset on Palms displayed three decorative colored panels casting the colors of sunset on clusters of Bismarck, Alexander and Areca palms. The Living Lampshade, a gazebo decorated in orchid-inspired tinted panels, allowed the visitors to enter and enjoy the mounds of brilliant flower beds. Depending on the time of day, you might experience dazzling light effects on the shell walkway and tropical flower beds below.

During the course of the visit, it was the shifting light casting its magic on the natural world, inviting you to gaze, ponder and enjoy the ever-changing images and patterns displayed below. Just as they did in ancient churches and buildings, Tiffany stained glass garden panels were inspiring and illuminating. 

Accompanying the garden displays are examples of Tiffany lamps, vases and other art pieces at the Museum of Botany and Arts. The garden tour was an all-day visit, but if you want to explore a more comprehensive Tiffany collection, the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art at Winter Park is known to have the world’s most comprehensive collection of Tiffany art.

Tiffany: The Pursuit of Beauty in Nature is on view through June 25, 2023, at the Selby Gardens downtown Sarasota campus.