Online art course: The garden in contemporary art

Through this four-part program, we will be exploring the theme of the garden in contemporary art.

Rather than offering an exhaustive overview of the garden throughout art history, the course provides key insights and examples of how gardens have served—and continue to serve—as sources of inspiration, as well as spaces for intervention and artistic action.

The relationship between humankind and the garden can be traced back thousands of years, to the Garden of Eden and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Among the most evocative aspects of this form are the apparent freedom of English gardens, the contemplative spirit of Japanese Zen gardens, the dazzling beauty of Versailles, and the quiet charm of the humble allotment.

Traditionally, a garden has been understood as a space for cultivating plant life—flowers, trees, and fruit—augmented with decorative elements designed to delight the senses or arranged with symbolic or functional intent.

The design and purpose of gardens have evolved over time, reflecting the political, philosophical, social, economic, and technical contexts of each era. As spaces that “order” nature, gardens are closely linked to ideas of nature itself, landscape, and the land.

WHAT WILL WE LEARN?

• How the relationship between art and the garden has evolved, particularly from the late 19th century to the present day.
• Key examples of artists and seminal works.
• References to the artistic context and interrelations.
• The importance of environmental sustainability in contemporary art.
• The work of women artists in this context and the recognition of their place in art history.

The course is led by Lola Durán Úcar, PhD in Art History and Visual Culture from the Autonomous University of Madrid, exhibition curator, and art critic.

Course hours: 6 hours, self-paced.

Audience: Adults interested in contemporary art

Language: Spanish

Access: Through the online platform

4 modules, 16 video classes and additional materials

Certification: Automatic, after completion of the course

PROGRAM

Module I: Introduction and background
In ancient art, gardens were merely decorative, backdrops against which artists set scenes of religious iconography, especially in the Middle Ages. The landscape as an artistic genre and also the representation of the garden emerged in the Renaissance as a background for scenes or portraits; fidelity was not considered imperative at the time of capturing nature, a field in which the importance of the link between the human and the divine was revealed.

During the Baroque period, cities were featured in art works (Villa Médici), in Rococo art, nature became exuberant, and Romanticism showed a very sensitive vision of nature through gardening and landscape.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the garden became a key source of inspiration and theme of representation. In the work of impressionist and post-impressionist artists, the garden reflects the union between nature and subjectivity, directly capturing light and colour, everyday life, intimacy and modernity.

Video 1. From the Garden of Eden to the Garden of Earthly Delights. Images of the garden in the Islamic world and East Asia.
Video 2. From Baroque artifice to romantic naturalism (Diego Velázquez, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, John Constable, Claude Lorrain).
Video 3. Breakthroughs and modern visions: Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: (Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre – Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh).Women illustrators who expand the representation of the garden through a female gaze (Maria Sibylla Merian, Marianne North).
Video 4. Dreamlike and imaginary gardens: from the Avant-Garde to Surrealism (Henri Matisse, Vasily Kandinsky, Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Remedios Varo).

Module II: The garden as a symbol of memory, transformation, metaphor and creation
In 20th century art, the garden also becomes a symbol of memory and transformation. Many authors use it to explore issues related to identity, loss, fragility of existence, reconstruction and evolution; and others, as a metaphor for everything it implies or awakens in onlookers. Some artists were also gardeners and created their own gardens, which have now been turned into museums or are an integral part of them.

Video 1. Memory (Louise Bourgeois, Paloma Navares, Miquel Navarro, Doris Salcedo, Kapwani Kiwanga).
Video 2. Transformation (Patrick Blanc, David Hockney, Jeff Koons, Yayoi Kusama).
Video 3. Metaphor (Cristina Almodóvar, Chus García Fraile, Françoise Vanneraud, Daniel Verbis).
Video 4. Gardener-artists and garden-museums (Vanessa Bell and the Bloomsbury group, Derek Jarman, Roberto Burle Marx, Claude Monet, Alejandra Riera, Daniel Spoerri).

Module III: The garden as a space for intervention and action
In the 1960s, artistic movements such as Land Art emerged, which used nature as a material and creative space, generating immersive and reflective experiences. Ecofeminist art establishes a link between the subjugation of women and the taming of nature. Progressively, new artistic proposals appear sensitive to climate change and the scarcity of resources.

Video 1. Land Art and Conceptual Art (Agnes Denes, Hans Haacke, Robert Smithson).
Video 2. The garden in Ecofeminism (Yto Barrada, Fina Miralles, Mierle Laderman Ukeles).
Video 3. Gardens and climate change (Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, Olafur Eliasson).
Video 4. Collectives and collaborative projects (Campo Adentro, Futurefarmers, Guerrilla Gardening, Gabriel Orozco).

Module IV: The garden in multimedia and digital art.
The garden in multimedia and digital art is a space for inquiry, metaphor, dialog and debate between nature and technology, where the interaction between human being and machine redefines the relationship between nature and culture. The ability to devise and transform gardens invites us to rethink our connection with nature and to explore new forms of creativity and experimentation in 21st century art.

Video 1. Post-nature (Thomas Demand, Violet Forest, Allora & Calzadilla).
Video 2. The garden as a multimedia and virtual space (Jennifer Steinkamp, Miguel Chevalier, teamLab).
Video 3. The garden in digital art and collective creativity (Esther Rollinson).
Video 4. Generative Art (Andy Lomas).