Aug 22, 2017
Grapes are one of the first plants to be grown domestically by people and their cultivation cycle has been embedded deep within us. One only needs to look at the symbolic, religious and cultural importance of grapes to get a small fathoming of what they must have meant to the early peoples who first fermented them to what they mean across the world today. Since Ancient Greece artists have used grapes to show off their artistic skills by capturing the beauty held within both the individual grapes and as a whole bunch on their vines. Grapes are symbolic of harvests, abundance, fertility and luxury. Grapes feature in association with Dionysus, the Greek God and his Roman equivalent Bacchus, who were the both Gods of wine, vegetation, pleasure, festivity, madness and wild frenzy. We'll look at the art of Zeuxis, Juan Fernandez El Labrador, Louise Moillon, Luca Forte, Georgia O'Keeffe, Alfred Steiglitz and Grimanesa Amoros. Their impact cannot be downplayed; grapes are intertwined with humans as the vines that they grow on. An allegory to life and times of abundance and drought, hard work, establishing roots and pruning for the future, and just generally the beautiful outcomes of all of the above and the celebrations and things shared alongside it.