Exhibit Showcases Botanical Art Brought Gloriously into the Modern Age

Artists don’t usually have grand expectations for their work.  Hoping what they create makes people see the world around them a little differently is the most typical aspiration they express.  If it fosters more awareness, understanding and appreciation of and for what comprises our existence, an ideal is achieved.   The Driehaus Museum’s newest exhibition, Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature shows how successfully those goals can be both met and exceeded.

A New Perspective on Nature walks you through the evolution of a gifted artist of botanical subjects whose work eventually took on the characteristics of a visionary.  There are also side trails highlighting other interests like sculpture and music that prove just as rewarding as the work McEwen composed with watercolor on vellum.  They all give invaluable insight into a multifaceted artist who once asked himself, “What is the best I can do with what I am?”

McEwen’s affinity for nature may have been, at least partially, inherited.  His mother’s great-grandfather was John Lindsay, a distinguished 19^th century botanist.  Another influence may have been the setting in which he was raised. The wonder, bounty and mystery of nature were all very much esteemed in the 18^th century.  And although he was born in the 20^th, McEwen declared his life at home was like living two centuries in the past.  After noticing his propensity for drawing, McEwen’s French governess encouraged and helped develop his talent.  Later, as a student at Eton, his drawing instructor Wilfred Blunt introduced him to the work of prominent 17^th and 18^th century French painters of botanical art.  

Despite being beautifully executed, McEwen’s early work was essentially duplicative; using standard compositional approaches and assuming perspectives that didn’t dramatically deviate from tradition.  Seeing his early work placed alongside some of the greats of the past made clear the impressive degree of his talent; but barely provided a hint of the huge explosion of innovation and exploration that would follow.

By the 1970s, the transformation of McEwen as an artist was becoming much more apparent in works like Tulip Petal that he completed in 1976.  Focusing on a single flower petal, he presents it as a luminous shield-shaped jewel against a luxurious green background.  The petal’s striated colors are so radiant they seem to glow and the character of the painting places it firmly in the modernist context.  Its symmetry, beauty and perfection initially seem somehow incongruous with the natural world.  Isolated and elevated through finely executed art, the painting of a singular petal helps us better see and comprehend the grandeur of things that grow in nature.  

It was also during that period that McEwen started a series of paintings on the individual leaves of trees.   He’d walk the streets of London and other locations, usually in autumn, and gather leaves that’d fallen from trees.  Like more and more who study the plant world today, he viewed them as “incredibly satisfying objects” that can embody many things and even possess a distinct uniqueness that’s comparable to a personality.   As they decayed and decomposed, their individuality became more apparent to the artist and that’s when McEwen would capture them through portrait.  He’d often title the paintings based on where the leaves were found and in Dutchman’s Farm, Eton 1979 the leaf’s color change from green to red is almost complete. The primary marker of its ultimate transition.  The leaf is not centered in the frame and its high position on the canvas makes it seem as if it’s in motion.  Its positioning in the frame acts to heighten its intrigue.  From this vantage point, and with imagination, it appears as if it could be an exotic bird with its long stem acting as a tail. 

In Fogo, Leave on Snow 1973, the leaf’s isolation and diminished state make it appear noble in its austere honesty.  The simplicity of its colors and the delicacy of its painting catapult it to the exquisite.  McEwen accomplishes the same impact with vegetables and turns the humble onion into something dynamic and sublime.

It’s McEwen’s willingness to capture and present objects that fill nature in unorthodox and dramatic new ways that created a legacy for his own contemporaries as well as artists following him.  His series on leaves is said to be a primary influencer on those looking for new perspectives and inspiration.  Some of their work is included in the exhibition and reflect McEwen’s influence.  In Paul Jones’s impressive Magnolia grandiflora, 1972, you can see how he uses space to add potent drama to the magnolia floating off to the right in the frame.

It’s difficult to imagine that the same person who produced works of such aesthetic sensitivity also created sculptural pieces that astound in completely different ways.  Using materials like Perspex, a high clarity thermoplastic used in engineering, McEwen cunningly uses color, shape, depth and shadow to make small wonders of beauty and curiosity.  All of which lean heavily into the future.  

Paying tribute to the whole man, Rory McEwen: A New Perspective on Nature also recognizes the artist’s contributions as an accomplished musician.  Best known as a folksinger who was a mainstay in England’s folksong revival after WWII, he also traveled and performed across the United States, appeared on the Ed Sullivan show, was passionate about the blues and enjoyed close friendships with musical royalty. 

With so much of his work in private collections, this exhibition provides a rare opportunity to appreciate the contributions of a major artistic talent who made indelible impressions across the creative spectrum.

Rory McEwen:  A New Perspective on Nature will be featured at the Driehaus Museum in Chicago’s Gold Coast through August 17^th, 2025.  More information