Special Exhibitions

The artists Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717), Elisabeth Schultz (1817–1898), and Ulrike Crespo (1950–2019) represent the observation of the plant world (flora) across three consecutive centuries. The analysis of flora is an important field of biodiversity research. At the same time, plants represent an artistic domain. In Frankfurt, these three artists have mastered the artistic-scientific exploration and visualization of flora. The exhibition presents their works in a completely new context and sheds light on the relationship between science and art.
The project is supported by the Crespo Foundation.

The delicate flower heads of the intricately and realistically rendered poppy glow red. On the blue-purple petals, reminiscent of hydrangeas, raindrops create unique patterns and blends of color. A caterpillar climbs the golden-yellow lily, whose leaves bear various insect eggs and pupae, while the hatched butterfly already perches above. Elisabeth Schultz, Ulrike Crespo, and Maria Sibylla Merian are the creators of these extraordinary, exemplary plant portraits—Ulrike Crespo incorporates natural rain, while in Merian’s case, the interplay between animals and their host plants within the ecosystem is even depicted. The exhibition “Floralia: Merian – Schultz – Crespo” features selected works by the three artists and explores the relationship between science and art.

Several original copies of Maria Sibylla Merian’s famous book on caterpillars, *The Wonderful Metamorphosis of Caterpillars and Their Remarkable Floral Diet* (uncolored, colored, and reprint editions), are on display. In richly detailed illustrations, she depicted the life cycle of an insect: from the egg through the caterpillar and pupa stages to the butterfly—arranged around and on the respective host plant. This form of representation was her artistic invention. All her works were preceded by empirical observations. She studied the insects, their development, and their natural habitat, began breeding the animals, and systematically researched them. Her work as a naturalist-illustrator—or an artist conducting natural history research—was exceptional for her time. At a media station, visitors can digitally browse through the caterpillar book as well as Merian’s book on Surinamese plants and insects, “Dissertatio De Generatione Et Metamorphosibus Insectorum Surinamensium.” In addition, previously virtually unknown original drawings of plants with animals attributed to Merian, as well as hand-painted illustrations of insects, snails, and flowers based on Georg Hoefnagel, are on display.

Elisabeth Schultz dedicated her artistic work to the comprehensive documentation of Frankfurt’s flora. Over the course of 40 years, she created a compendium—still unique today—of over 1,200 gouaches, through which the artist produced an “Atlas of Wild Plants from the Frankfurt am Main Area.” About 40 sheets from this complete body of work, which she bequeathed to the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research after her death, are on view for the first time in the exhibition. The works are labeled with their botanical classifications in Latin as well as their common German names. Although Schultz did not note the exact location or date of discovery, her work offers insight into Frankfurt’s flora during her lifetime. “Her depictions are reminiscent of the methods used in herbaria—collections of preserved, mostly dried and pressed plants—in which all parts of a plant are dissected and assembled on a sheet of paper,” explains Prof. Dr. Klement Tockner, Director General of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research. Schultz also depicts leaves upside down to reveal the underside, or folds off entire plant parts if they are too large to fit on a single page. “Her works meet the scientific standards of botanical drawings, such as completeness, realism, and factual authenticity,” Tockner elaborates. At the same time, they employ their own approach to lighting and composition, using artistic techniques to create a sense of depth and spatiality.

A selection of Ulrike Crespo’s “Rainflowers” is on display. The works are inextricably linked to “Glenkeen Garden,” a landscape park featuring both carefully landscaped and naturally preserved areas, which the artist created over many years together with her partner Michael Satke on the coast of West Cork, Ireland. She approaches the plants through photography and experimentation. The individual flower clusters or leaves serve as her material; in the case of the “Rainflower” series, which comprises over 200 leaves, she arranges them directly on the scanning surface of a color copier, then exposes the print to the elements. The colors, dissolved to varying degrees by rainwater, lend her works their distinctive, abstract effects. In the subsequent transformation process, Crespo scans the motifs again to digitally complete the pictorial process. Her “Rainflowers” focus on the interplay between precise digital recording and random patterns created by the elements of nature. The artist treats the final format of the motifs in this series very flexibly, depending on the location and function, as a wall-filling work or as a photographic object. The exhibition features the small-format “original templates” that were in turn scanned for the final images, several large-format unframed prints, and one motif as a photo wallpaper that spans an entire wall of the exhibition space.

In addition to their expert perspectives on the field of botany, all three women share a particular interest in publishing their illustrations in the form of books or compendiums. To this day, the publication of one’s own work is regarded as a kind of “mark of distinction” within the scientific and artistic communities as well as in the public eye. For Merian and Schultz, the artistic engagement with nature provided a pathway into this scientific field—which was dominated by men in their time and long denied to women. To this day, drawing, visual documentation, and the creation of infographics continue to play a central role in the natural sciences for capturing the observed world. The publications by these three female artists continue to facilitate the dissemination of their works to this day. The exhibition also offers a comparative reflection on historical contexts and the various production processes.

The Crespo Foundation is a private, non-profit foundation based in Frankfurt am Main. It was founded in 2001 by psychologist and photographer Ulrike Crespo (1950–2019) with the aim of supporting people during the critical phases of their personal development, motivating them to realize their potential, and encouraging them to take responsibility for themselves and others. To this end, the Crespo Foundation is involved in a wide range of projects in the fields of culture, education, and social welfare. It has a partnership with the Senckenberg Society for artistic engagement with nature (and nature research), including through the ArtNature/NatureArt artist-in-residence program at Glenkeen Garden in Ireland.