Tiffany windows and lamps to inspire Selby Gardens exhibit

For its seventh winter and spring art and nature exhibition, Selby Botanical Gardens will present “Tiffany: The Pursuit of Beauty in Nature,” a look at the work of American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany. It will open Feb. 12.

Tiffany, who lived from 1848 to 1933, founded Tiffany Studios and served as the first design director for Tiffany & Co., the jewelry and silver firm created by his father, Charles Lewis Tiffany. Louis Tiffany is best known for his acclaimed stained-glass windows and lamps, and the show will be the first of its kind to be presented in a botanical garden.

Tiffany began his career as a painter and later focused on decorative arts, particularly stained glass.

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Tiffany’s work “as an artist and designer was part of a lifelong goal he described as ‘the pursuit of beauty,’ and he believed that inspiration for this work should be found in nature,” Selby President and CEO Jennifer Rominiecki said in a statement. “We are excited to celebrate Tiffany’s beloved art and more deeply explore his unique aesthetic in the context of our botanical garden setting.”

His glass works will inspire horticultural displays that will be found in Selby Gardens’ greenhouse and around the grounds. In the Museum of Botany & And the Arts, the gardens will display several lamps and other objects that are being lent from a private collection. Gardens officials said the exhibit will help to tell the story of Tiffany and his firm.”

The Tiffany show will be the seventh installment of the Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition Series, which has previously featured the work of Paul Gauguin, Andy Warhol, Marc Chagall, Roy Lichtenstein, Salvador Dali and this year’s combination of Robert Mapplethorpe and poet and songwriter Patti Smith.

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota's Selby Gardens exhibit to feature Tiffany lamps, glassware