Monet and Lichtenstein Are Taking Over a Garden in Sarasota This Season

There's something exciting happening at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida, this spring, and you don't want to miss it. A special exhibition has taken over the grounds, and it's a pop art explosion of line and color. Entitled Roy Lichtenstein: Monet's Garden Goes Pop!, the indoor-outdoor exhibition features a series of large screen prints in which Lichtenstein reinterprets Monet's paintings. The gardens are also filled with an immersive outdoor installation that marries Monet's garden at Giverny with the bright colors and graphic shapes of Roy Lichtenstein's pop art.

According to a press release, "On view exclusively at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens' Downtown Sarasota campus from February 13 through June 27, 2021, Roy Lichtenstein: Monet's Garden Goes Pop! showcases the legendary Pop artist's take on several staples of the public imagination: Claude Monet's paintings of his garden and surroundings at Giverny, France. The display of these large-scale, rarely seen artworks are accompanied by a complete transformation of the Downtown Sarasota campus's 15 acres into Monet's garden at Giverny as imagined through the aesthetic of Lichtenstein." For a glimpse of the exhibition and installation in the gardens, press play on the video below.

According to the press release, "Roy Lichtenstein: Monet's Garden Goes Pop! is the latest installment in Selby Gardens' Living Museum® exhibition model and immersive Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series, which examines major artists and their relationships to nature in the context of a botanical garden."

Of the works, Lichtenstein said—as quoted on the exhibition's promotional materials—"I realized everyone would think that Monet was someone I could never do because his work has no outlines and it's so impressionistic. So, I smiled at the idea of a mechanical Monet." The result is a lively experience that, if you're in Sarasota this season, you don't want to miss.

For more information about Roy Lichtenstein: Monet's Garden Goes Pop!, visit selby.org.