Art at the de Young gets a new bloom
Flowers flow through Joan McLellan Tayler’s blood. She was born that way, a child of the McLellan flower empire that grew orchids on the Peninsula. As a girl attending the Katherine Delmar Burke School in Pacific Heights, McLellan Tayler would accompany her father to the San Francisco Flower Mart in the predawn hours to shop the floral vendors. At nearly 90 years old, McLellan Tayler regularly shops the Flower Mart, as she did last week while preparing her annual floral entry into the de Young Museum “Bouquet to Arts” exhibition.
For the past 34 years, select florists and floral artisans have been invited to re-create pieces from the de Young’s collection of artwork — with flowers. One hundred and 20 (give or take) “exhibitors” select or are assigned one piece of artwork, including the really modern stuff like video installations, and interpret it with flora and fauna. The fragrant results remain on display throughout the museum for a single week. And then, for the most part, they die.
“I got my first choice,” McLellan Tayler said of the artwork she’d chosen to re-create with flowers. She has participated in 32 of the 34 “Bouquets to Art” exhibitions, and she fully intends to take part next year.
Basically, exhibitors like McLellan Tayler spend a day in January exploring every inch of the de Young. Nearly all of the museum’s pieces are up for floral artistry grabs, and each artist submits their top five choices to recreate in petals and leaves. It then comes down to Exhibitor Chair Lisa Harris, who spends an entire month trying to match exhibitors with art they like. “It’s a huge puzzle,” Harris said.
Monday night, March 12, was the Gala Preview, an opportunity for donors and exhibitors to take a peek at this year’s show before the public took over. McCall’s catered a gourmet buffet with rack of lamb, fresh rolled sushi and some wildly popular mini grilled cheese sandwiches. Open bars served cocktails and Champagne. Numerous dessert stations offered a decorate-yourown-doughnut bar and hundreds of pounds of See’s candy. And guests were encouraged to pose for photos against a blooming backdrop. The glitzy scene, all taking place in the grand entrance of the de Young, was exploding with color — and colorful people.
“Bouquets to Art” means a whole week of people who are extremely happy and smiling,” said Fine Arts Museums Director Max Hollein.
Although, Hollein confessed, even when filled with thousands of flowers, the de Young Museum is not as aggressively pungent as one might imagine. “That’s the disadvantage of American air conditioning,” he said with a smile.
Several students from San Francisco City College wore floral-inspired creations of their own design. Each happily posed for photos with hobnobbers and socialites. Meanwhile, smartly dressed exhibitors in statement jewelry proudly showed off their pieces. Some exhibitors re-created the original artwork literally. The placement and color of each petal matched the painting, sculpture or tapestry. Others employed broader interpretation. McLellan Tayler selected a piece of artwork near the lobby exit on the Main Level in Wilsey Court.
“I like to be out in the open,” she confessed.
But on Monday night, McLellan Tayler worried that her floral masterpiece was too close to the very distracting See’s candy station. Chocolate might be temporarily stealing the thunder of “very expensive” black ranunculus she’d ferreted out at the Flower Mart. “It’s not my best work,” McLellan Tayler insisted.
Her entry was stunning, although she was right. Thanks to the one-night-only wall of See’s, it was tough to tell which piece of artwork inspired McLellan Tayler’s unmistakably chic display. Her ranunculus, worth every penny, rested between slabs of glass as young spring branches and bold tropical leaves peered in from the back. I loved her artwork, but in our short time together chatting at a small gala cocktail table, I grew to love Joan McLellan Tayler, too.
It’s easy to see how McLellan Tayler has thrived for nine decades. She seems to delight in just about everything, from the California poppies blooming along Interstate 280 to the task of recreating artwork at the de Young. A fourth-generation San Franciscan, McLellan Tayler is full of fascinating insights on the city and the Bay Area. She knows it well and intimately, and giddily delights in asking me just as many questions as I asked her.
“Three days ahead of time,” McLellan Tayler said of her annual participation in “Bouquets to Art,” “I’m thinking, ‘Oh, what am I doing?’ ” But then it all comes together. And I just love it.”
Floral have been artisans invited to re-create pieces from the de Young’s collection of artwork — with flowers.