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The wildest flowers in San Francisco are bursting out at the de Young

The de Young’s annual explosion of flowers pairs elaborate floral displays with celebrated works of art.

Two large paintings of waterfalls in gold frames are displayed on a wall. In front are two elaborate, contemporary floral arrangements on white pedestals.
The floral arrangements in Bouquets to Art echo the shapes in the adjacent artworks. | Source: Courtesy Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
By Julie Zigoris

San Franciscans like to see flowers in unusual places and unusual things among flowers: While the San Francisco Botanical Garden puts pianos among plants, the nearby de Young Museum arranges bouquets among art, in what has become a 40-year tradition that raises around half a million dollars annually for the museum. 

A vase with white, orange, and red flowers sits on a table with a dark cloth. A framed still-life painting of fruits hangs on the purple wall behind it.
Many of the floral displays in the de Young’s Bouquets to Art echo the artworks adjacent to them. | Source: Courtesy Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
A person with bold, colorful makeup stands on a staircase, wearing a dress adorned with various dried flowers and holding a bouquet and a large leaf fan. They have tattoos.
Harley Belle, a floristry student at the City College of San Francisco, wears one of the eight floral ensembles that are part of Bouquets to Art and will be displayed on mannequins for the general public. | Source: Tâm Vũ/The Standard

Back with more blooms than ever before—125 floral displays in total—the Bouquets to Art floral fundraiser runs through this Sunday, just long enough for all those glorious blooms to remain beautiful. Some displays are literal interpretations of the museum’s artwork, a canvas’s image replicated with flowers. Others are more interpretive, like the stands of blooms beside an African mask or a Frank Lloyd Wright window. 

The image shows an abstract art installation with stacked black boxes and compartments filled with assorted yellow flowers and foliage, displayed against a white wall.
Abstract, geometric forms are represented botanically in the Bouquets to Art event. | Source: Courtesy Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The image shows a modern art display in a gallery, featuring a vertical hanging sculpture and an abstract plant arrangement in a wire bowl on a curved stand.
Ruth Asawa's famous wire sculptures are reimagined as flower arrangements in the Bouquets to Art event. | Source: Courtesy Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Two women, one elderly and one middle-aged, admire a vibrant floral arrangement featuring yellow and orange blooms in an indoor setting with soft lighting.
Dawn Schaeffer, left, and long time member of SFMOMA, Kate Sullivan, admire a floral arrangement during the Bouquets to Art opening gala at the de Young museum. | Source: Tâm Vũ/The Standard

This year, Bouquets to Art also includes eight fashion designs by City College floristry students; the ensembles are interpretations of dresses in the Fashioning San Francisco: A Century of Style exhibition and will be on display on mannequins for the general public. 

A glass vase with intricate designs, featuring red, blue, and yellow decorations, sits on a pedestal, with colorful abstract art pieces displayed in the background.
Some of the displays as part of Bouquets to Art don't even look like flowers. | Source: Courtesy Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The image shows a vibrant floral arrangement mimicking a painting in a gold frame on the wall behind it. The floral display is lush and colorful with various plants.
Some of the floral displays as part of Bouquets to Art are very literal interpretations of the artwork adjacent to them. | Source: Courtesy Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
A woman arranges a vibrant bouquet of flowers. She wears an apron and stands in front of a large framed painting of a woman in a red and yellow dress.
While participating florists are encouraged to explore their imaginations freely, certain materials—like pest-harboring live wool—are not permitted in the displays. | Source: Courtesy Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
A floral arrangement with pink roses and green foliage in a white pedestal vase is in the foreground. A painting of an old building is in the background.
There are more flower displays than ever before—125 in total—for this year's Bouquets to Art. | Source: Courtesy Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

At the exhibition’s press preview on Monday night, student Donna Cala attracted gazes with her sunset-colored gown made from star flowers, button mums and rose petals. She and her partner Christina Harsanyi spent 72 hours adorning the dress, which Cala bought at Goodwill eight years ago, taking care to pick flowers that would be wearable and could live without water for a week. 

An older woman in a quilted vest arranges flowers in a metal sculpture. A vibrant painting with a rainbow and mountains is visible in the background.
Many of the floral displays in Bouquets to Art include metal and other three-dimensional objects. | Source: Courtesy Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
The image shows a framed portrait of a woman in historical attire, displayed on a blue wall with a floral arrangement of roses and glossy leaves beneath it.
A floral arrangement made of white peonies, dendrobium, marigolds, and smoke tree represents the painting titled, “Mrs. Charles Apthorp (Grizzle Eastwick Apthorp)” by Robert Feke. | Source: Tâm Vũ/The Standard
A glass vase filled with tall, green plants sits on a pedestal. Behind it, there's an abstract painting with muted pink and green colors on a white wall.
The displays can periodically be refreshed during the week of Bouquets to Art. | Source: Courtesy Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

There are other considerations for materials used in the floral fundraiser. Any material that could attract pests—living wool, for example—is on the verboten list, as is gravel, which could be a tempting material to play with but harm the artworks. Yet contributing floral artists still find plenty to work with, with many of the displays including welded metal and various three-dimensional objects to expand beyond the botanical. 

A gold-framed painting is hung on a maroon wall. Below it is a wooden planter with a colorful arrangement of flowers, featuring red, white, and pink blossoms.
In the foreground, the colors of the floral arrangement represent the painting titled “A Different Sugaring Off” by Eastman Johnson. | Source: Tâm Vũ/The Standard
The image features an ornate floral arrangement with vibrant orange, red, and yellow flowers, green leaves, and spiky accents, displayed in a museum-like setting.
The floral arrangements in the low-lit African art galleries are particularly striking in their abstract forms. | Source: Tâm Vũ/The Standard
An elderly woman with white hair and a vibrant, floral hat stands next to a decorative arrangement of multicolored flowers that appears to be cascading from a fixture.
Claire McAuliffe stands next to a floral arrangement at the Bouquets to Art opening gala at the de Young museum. | Source: Tâm Vũ/The Standard

All of the floral decadence allows viewers to see the museum’s collection in a different light, especially in the low-light galleries of African art, where the living displays draw attention to abstract forms. The displays will also be in dialogue with the recently opened exhibition American Beauty: The Osher Collection of American Art, which celebrates the gift of 61 artworks to the Fine Arts Museum’s permanent collection. 

Tickets to view the 125 floral designs start at $40 and include admission to the permanent collection.  

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ArtArts & Entertainmentde Young Museum