ABUNDANCE
Throughout history, flowers have been a recurring theme that have inspired countless artists.
Yet, this subject is often overlooked or undervalued by experts, who tend to focus on artistic genres and movements while neglecting the significance of flowers in art.
There is no fruit without a flower. Here, flowers and the fruits they bear come together in a chamber of natural wonders as an allegory of nature’s boundless power, the dynamism of life, and the pleasure of the senses. These compositions, rich in organic forms, density, and excess, evoke the sensory delights of taste and smell, challenging traditional notions of the"still life" genre.
BOUQUETS
From the vast and captivating collection of floral arrangement paintings in the Kaluz Collection, this selection highlights the exuberant bloom of roses, calla lilies, magnolias, dahlias, mayflowers, and gladiolas, among others. A limitless interplay of textures, rich hues, and bold contours unfold across a range of pictorial styles, from naturalism to geometric abstraction.
Though often dismissed as a minor genre in art history, floral painting offers a uniquely intimate glimpse into artistic expression and its connection to nature. Within the confined space of a vase, the boundless is contained—an enigmatic world of paintings brimming with hidden messages, decipherable only to those who speak the language of flowers.
BALCONIES, TERRACES, GARDENS
These three ways of arranging flowers in spaces for enjoyment have accompanied humanity since antiquity. The openness of the balcony, the vistas of the terrace, and the intimacy of the garden are depicted in works from the Kaluz Collection, illustrating how living among flowers and tending to them is a pursuit of happiness deeply connected to nature.
MANILA FLOWERS
Between 1565 and 1815, the Manila Galleon—also known as the Nao de China—crossed the Pacific Ocean, bringing goods from Asia to the port of Acapulco. This section gathers a selection of works that pay tribute to the exchange between East and West and their respective floral traditions.
One of the most celebrated Asian imports was the Manila shawl, which became highly popular in both Mexico and Spain (the final destination of the Manila Galleon). Embroidered on silk, it often featured one of Asia’s most iconic flowers: the peony. This bloom found its way into Western culture, most notably in the Tehuana dress of Mexico and the flamenco shawl of Seville.
UNDER THE OPEN SKY
A journey through outdoor paintings where flowers appear in their natural context—growing, changing, and flowing within the endless cycle of nature. There is, however, a fundamental difference between cut flowers, severed from the earth with fleeting lifespans, and wildflowers, still connected to their plants, renewing themselves with the passing seasons.
While we are accustomed to the opulent blooms of ornamental flowers, true flowers are not always conspicuous. Some grow unnoticed—between rocks, along roadsides, beneath the sun—enduring the elements and thriving without care. These are nature’s originals, unstoppable in their blooming.
THE FALLEN FLOWER
One of the most mysterious recurring motifs in the history of painting is the fallen flower. In floral depictions, artists across time have often included either a complete flower or, at times, just a single petal, separated from the rest, implying that it has naturally fallen.
A multitude of interpretations have been offered for this rhetorical device. Whether seen as a metaphor for impermanence, or memento mori, a representation of tempus fugit, or the fleeting nature of time and beauty; as a symbol of the exceptional nature of the singular, or as a nostalgic gesture, the fallen flower remains an iconic figure in floral paintings.