Painting the Modern Garden: From Monet to Matisse

Immerse yourself in some of the greatest masterpieces of all time in our Perpetual Guardian Planetarium with a special one-off screening of Painting the Modern Garden: From Monet to Matisse. Enjoy a coffee and cake from our café for only $5, and settle in for a morning enjoying the arts at Tūhura Otago Museum. This special screening is offered as part of NZ Festival of Nature, Wild Dunedin’s Festival Program 2023.

Claude Monet was an avid horticulturist and arguably the most important painter of gardens in the history of art, but he was not alone. Great artists like Van Gogh, Bonnard, Sorolla, Sargent, Pissarro and Matisse all saw the garden as a powerful subject for their art. These great artists, along with many other famous names, feature in an innovative and extensive exhibition from The Royal Academy of Arts, London.

From the exhibition walls to the wonder and beauty of artists’ gardens of Giverny and Seebüll, the film takes a magical and widely-travelled journey to discover how contemporaries of Monet built and cultivated modern gardens to explore expressive motifs, abstract colour, decorative design and utopian ideas. Guided by passionate curators, artists, and garden enthusiasts, this remarkable collection of Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and avant-garde artists of the early twentieth century reveals the rise of the modern garden in popular culture and the public’s enduring fascination with gardens today. Long considered spaces for expressing colour, light, and atmosphere, the garden has occupied the creative minds of some of the world's greatest artists. As Monet said, ‘Apart from painting and gardening, I’m no good at anything’. For lovers of art, or lovers of gardens, this is an ideal film.

Rated E, Runtime 93 Minutes, coffee and cake deal valid only for ticket holders.

10.30am, Sunday 23 April 2023
Perpetual Guardian Planetarium
$20 Adults, $15 Seniors, Students and Concession