It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience: the chance to see one of the greatest -- and most fragile -- works of European art before your very eyes. The illustrated manuscript known as the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry contains images that have shaped our view of the late Middle Ages, but it's normally kept under lock and key at the Château de Chantilly, north of Paris. It's only been exhibited twice in the past century. Now newly restored, the glowing pages of Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry are on show to the public for just a few months. "Approche, approche," the Duke of Berry's usher tells the visitors to the great man's table for the feast that will mark the start of the New Year. It's also your invitation to examine closely the illustration for January, one of the 12 months from the calendar in this Book of Hours -- a collection of prayers and other religious texts -- that form the centrepiece of this exhibition in Chantilly. It's su...
Flowers -- Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture at the Saatchi Gallery gets its statement of intent across to you right from the start: big, bold and bright. Sure, there are all sorts of flowers, large and small, of every conceivable hue in this expansive show, but remember, we're on the King's Road in Chelsea. This is no place for shy retiring wallflowers or shrinking violets.
The tone is set by Sophie Mess's enormous and eye-catchingly vibrant Journey of Progress mural on the walls of the stairwell you ascend to the start of the show; an only slightly more modest work by her -- appropriately entitled Burst -- is the very first painting you encounter as you enter the nine galleries.
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The first room takes us on something of a magical history tour of flower painting. There's a huge reproduction of Botticelli's Spring at one end of the room, complete with detailed explanation, as well as William Morris, Alfons Mucha and others -- and modern reinterpretations of those works. Such as this sculptural take on Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers by the husband-and-wife team Rob and Nick Carter, which used 3D printing on its way to creating a minutely detailed bronze replicating the original artwork.
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Flowers, you see, are ever open to reinterpretation -- in wallpaper by Sanderson, in Pop Art, wrapped by Christo, reproduced in cutlery by Ann Carrington, or outlined in metal by Michael Craig-Martin. There are moving sculptures, lots of photographic interpretations, drawings, videos; you name it, they've got it here.
And clothes. No flower exhibition in Chelsea would be complete without some homage to Mary Quant, whose shop was just a few hundred yards down the King's Road and who designed the mini skirt two-piece pictured below in front of her iconic brand symbol, the black daisy.
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This is the Swinging 60s, the decade of Flower Power. And yes, the politics of that era is addressed as well.
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And the pop music.... with a series of late 1960s record covers; alongside perhaps the most famous of all, Peter Blake and Jann Haworth's design for the Beatles' Sergeant Pepper, there are Donovan and the Monkees to bring back memories.
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But some of the new works leave their mark too, notably the really large-scale ones: Halfway through there's an enormous pastel-shaded installation by Rebecca Louise Law. You walk through and among falling fronds of delicately coloured dried flowers and petals in a huge space. It's quite difficult to convey the extent of this astonishingly three-dimensional exhibit in an unrelentingly two-dimensional photograph.
It's certainly dramatic and boldly conceived; you feel slightly overwhelmed as you weave you way through these tendrils of blossom.
These flowers, though, are dead. The artwork is named La Fleur Morte.
However, flora in its natural state is alive, full of movement, not static like a painting or sculpture, or an assemblage of dried foliage. And that's reflected in Miguel Chevalier's Extra-Natural, a virtual-reality garden. Giant spikes, fronds and leaves sway and flow, moving this way and that, responding in part to your own movement as you walk through the room whose walls they inhabit. It's almost like a deep-sea underwater scene in a nature series on television.
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Our attention flagged towards the end of this show; with more than 500 exhibits, it's perhaps a bit bloated and you are unlikely to have the inclination to look at everything in detail. Give yourself a good 90 minutes, though; there's much to enjoy and, as if you were in a florist's shop, to select the blooms that appeal to you most and pass the others by.
Practicalities
Flowers -- Flora in Contemporary Art & Culture is on at the Saatchi Gallery in London until May 5. It's open every day from 1000 to 1800, with late opening some Fridays: see the gallery's website for details. Full-price tickets are £20 including Gift Aid, £18 without. You can book online here, and that's probably a good idea given the popularity of the show; weekend dates can sell out.The Saatchi Gallery is just off the King's Road in Chelsea, very close to Sloane Square. The Underground station at Sloane Square, on the District and Circle lines, is just a couple of minutes walk away, and Victoria station is also only 15-20 minutes away on foot.
Images
Sophie Mess, Burst, 2025Rob (b. 1968) and Nick Carter (b. 1969), Sunflowers, 2012-13, Courtesy of the artists, in front of an image of Vincent van Gogh's Irises, 1889
Mary Quant (1930-2023), Jacket, 1965, and Matching Miniskirt, 1967, Courtesy of Target Gallery, London
Display of LP cover art from 1967-68
Rebecca Louise Law (b. 1980), La Fleur Morte, 2025. Photos: Matt Chung
Miguel Chevalier (b. 1959), Extra-Natural, 2025, Courtesy of the Mayor Gallery, London. Photo: Matt Chung
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