Slideshow: The art of Japanese plants

The Yuuga exhibition, contemporary botanical watercolors from Japan

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

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Multimedia presentation by
Douglass Oster and Steve Mellon
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The drawings are elegant, refined, tasteful, gorgeous, or as the Japanese would say, Yuuga.

They are works of art that deserve a wider showing than just among gardening enthusiasts, says James White, curator of the Hunt Institute of Botanical Documentation at Carnegie Mellon University. Yuuga is also the name of the current exhibit of contemporary Japanese botanical drawings on display at the institute through June 30.

Mr. White says Japan easily ranks in the top six countries to actively promote the genre of botanical art. The exhibition includes 43 works by 33 Japanese artists. Most were donated to the institute's permanent collection by the artists.

Multimedia Index

First published on March 29, 2006 at 12:00 am

Douglass Oster, the Backyard Garderner, can be contacted at doster@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1484. Photojournalist Steve Mellon can be contacted at smellon@post-gazette.com.