Art Forms in Nature 33 1928

Karl Blossfeldt made these gelatin silver prints, including 'Art Forms in Nature 33', sometime in his lifetime. These are not paintings, but there is something painterly about them. I find myself wondering what it was like for him to frame these plants. He probably fussed over them, coaxing their natural strangeness to the surface. Like a painter obsessing over the right brushstroke, or the perfect hue, Blossfeldt no doubt worked to capture just the right angle, the perfect light. Look at the stark contrast and how the dark shades of the plants play against the white background. See how those curled ferns and budding flowers seem to dance on the surface, each telling its own story. It reminds me of Georgia O’Keefe in a way: she would blow up flowers really big and you’d think, wow! I think artists, no matter what their medium, are always in conversation with each other, learning, borrowing, and riffing off the past to create something new. And maybe that's what art is all about: a continuous, messy, beautiful conversation across time.