Through the second of April, the first floor of D.H. Hill library is housing the Smithsonian traveling exhibit Feast Your Eyes: The Unexpected Beauty of Vegetable Gardens. The exhibition adds unexpected beauty and life to the first floor of D.H. Hill library with its vibrant photographs.
The exhibit features panels of divided information, including vegetable still life works, famous gardens around the world and the importance of vegetable gardens during both world wars.
During World War II, posters, comics and even movies urged Americans to plant a “victory garden,” which sounds somewhat familiar — perhaps comparable to freedom fries.
These promotions featured statements such as “Our food is fighting” and “A garden will make your rations go further.” Americans responded out of patriotism and a fear of food shortages. In 1942, approximately 18 million gardens were created and 20 million in 1943. Everything from abandoned lots to school properties became homes for cultivating vegetables. Even New York City’s Rockefeller Plaza adopted the idea and planted a victory garden.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this exhibition is the evidence of vegetable gardens in various cultures over many centuries. Chinese art depicts eggplants in the 14th century and the Aztecs were known for chinampas — flower and vegetable gardens buried by Mexico City. Even sweet potatoes were a prized commodity in Elizabethan England — sold as aphrodisiacs.
The garden still life works mirror the impact of nature in the production of art and, for some artists, the similarities between arranging a painting and a garden. Artist Sondra Freckelton recognized the organic nature of painting as it relates to the garden while creating Harvest — a watercolor painting shown in the exhibition.
“I was unaware of how much I had learned from the garden, but soon realized that the making of the garden had very much to do with the making of art,” Freckelton said. “The garden taught me the value of ‘visual rhyme’ — the relationship of similar shape, form and color to create directions and rhythms, the importance of scale, proportion and placement in both endeavors.”
For all you nerds and trivia lovers, there is a plethora of vegetable facts found in the vegetable biographies (yes, vegetable biographies). Find out why the sweet potato was globally important — or why most Europeans assumed the tomato was poisonous.
