A Garden Show
September 14 - October 24, 1998
The general theme of the sales exhibition held in the New York gallery between September 14 and October 24, 1998, “A Garden Show,” is manifested in scenes of gardens as well as some of the objects enjoyed in them. The theme was suggested by the happy coincidence of the completion of a modest garden behind the gallery in New York and the acquisition of a larger one in Hawaii. Gardens have figured prominently in the imagination, the psychology, and the literature of the world from very early times. Ranging from the Garden of Eden in western culture to that of Xiwang Mu in Asia, gardens have been viewed as places of refuge and sustenance, of rest and nourishment, of companionship and fellowship, of beauty and inspiration, and therefore of pleasure and long life. Whether public or private, attached to palace, temple, or residence, these gardens embody an ideal of separation from the outside world, of protective enclosure that creates an environment within which physical needs are met in full and the human spirit allowed its potential for florescence. This exhibition was concerned with physical manifestations of the garden theme, but gardens themselves are places of the mind and spirit as well. Therefore it was hoped that these works of art might also serve to evoke in viewers some of the intangible benefits of gardens, an awareness of self in relation to environment with consequent increase of understanding of both.
