HORTICULTURE SOCIETY, New York
March 9 – May 25, 2005
Ann Craven, known for her bird imagery and use of repetition, created a new series of floral paintings for this exhibition, A Poppy is a Poppy is a Poppy. The show included paintings – often duplicated several times over – of poppies, water lilies and even birds. Craven’s images border on the saccharine but are more compelling for the questions they pose: Is it possible to impeccably create the same painting twice, even three times, maybe more; and does that repetition change the value or intensity of the image? As a result, Craven’s paintings can be seen as specimens of a process, often more interesting for their means of production than for their subject matter.
