Andrew's Art History 212 Blog

Books, Blogs, and Websites "Bonsai Museum Washington DC.” National Bonsai Foundation , https://www.bonsai-nbf.org/. “Historical Tree Spotlight: Bald Cypress.” National Bonsai Foundation , 2019, https://www.bonsai-nbf.org/blog-archive/2019/8/21/historical-tree-spotlight-bald-cypress?rq=banting. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023. McClellan, Ann. “North American Highlights.” Bonsai and Penjing: Ambassadors of Peace & Beauty , Tuttle, North Clarendon, Vermont, 2016, pp. 52–63. Neil, Ryan. “Colorado Spruce No. 1.” Bonsai Mirai , 20 June 2019, https://bonsaimirai.com/bonsai/colorado-spruce-no-1. Valavanis, William N. “About.” Valavanis Bonsai Blog , 2020, https://valavanisbonsaiblog.com/about/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023. Van Fleet, Brian. “About Me.” Nebari Bonsai , 2019, https://nebaribonsai.wordpress.com/about/. Accessed 30 Apr. 2023. Yoshimura, Yuji, and Giovanna M Halford. “Introduction.” The Art of Bonsai , Tuttle, North Clarendon, VT, 1957, pp. 13–20. Photos “Bald Cypress.” National Bonsai Fo...

  Hawthorn, Brian Van Fleet. Hawthorn. Private Collection. Photo from Brian Van Fleet.     This hawthorn has been in the 4th U.S. National Bonsai Exhibition, which is a juried show. Hawthorns (Crataegus spp.) are fruiting trees that bloom in late spring. They are most famous for their wicked thorns. In bonsai they're most popular in Europe. Most never manage to bloom in container, so they're grown for other attributes like bark and fall color.     Van Fleet's hawthorn is styled in an informal broom style, a style that originated in Europe and made popular by Walter Pall. The biggest difference between the two is the overall branching structure. The formal broom style looks like a planted whisk broom, hundreds of tiny branches. The informal broom looks more like a natural deciduous tree, with multiple sub-trunks and thicker branching.     Unfortunately, the picture taken at the U.S. National is blurry, but the placement of the tree in the pot is better ...

    Bonsai, the Japanese art of potted trees, is a sculptural art of living plants. The practice has origins in Chinese Penjing, styled trees and landscapes in pots or on slabs of marble, which in turn was inspired by ink landscape paintings (Yoshimura). It's similar to topiary, plants in a garden trimmed into shapes, but limited by pots versus grown in ground.       The art of bonsai's appearance in the west was an exhibition in London in 1909. Though it made a splash, it wasn't until later that it took off in the rest of the world. American Bonsai mostly originated after WWII, as G.I.s brought the art home with them after their occupation of Japan. Though bonsai collections existed in the U.S. prior to then, they were private, and were mostly maintained as opposed to created (McClellan, Yoshimura).      One of the things that art history 212 covers is the transfer of ideas between cultures. Bonsai illustrates this through the transfer of ae...

  Chinese Elm Forest, Marybel Balendonck. Chinese Elm. National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. Photo from NBF.     Chinese elm is a popular choice of new bonsai artists. It tolerates a wide range of conditions and can even be grown indoors. Balendonck's forest planting is the potential result of many beginner bonsai. It has been in training since the 1970s and shows the effect of time on any bonsai.     Much like its name suggests, this bonsai isn't a single tree, but multiple. Forest plantings have rules all their own; the most important of them all is that no trunk blocks the entire trunk of a tree behind it. The canopy of the entire forest is more important than the individual trees. That being said, it's important that the individual trees don't have any major flaws.     Note that the overall canopy is slightly triangular. No tree, nor branch, breaks the silhouette. Like many forest plantings, the composition is planted on a slab instead of in a pot. G...

Japanese Maple, William N. Valavanis. Seigen Japanese Maple. International Bonsai. Photo from William N. Valavanis.     Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) are the king of deciduous bonsai. They are showy in all seasons, even winter, which shows off the delicate twigging and branch color of certain species. They also require extra attention to their cultivation to keep them healthy. Valavanis has many Japanese maples of high quality. His attention to each tree is evident in their radiant health.     This is an example of an informal upright style deciduous bonsai. Like the atlas cedar, the branches start at a downward angle to show weight. But, unique to deciduous trees, the tips of the branches angle upward, reaching toward the light. The blue color and round shape of the pot complement the color of the foliage and shape of the canopy, respectively.     If the shallowness of the pot seems strange, it's not. Japanese maples, and maples in general, have shallow ...

"Tornado (Tatsumaki)" Post 2019 styling, Bjorn Bjorholm. One-seed Juniper. Photo from Nebari Bonsai Blog. https://nebaribonsai.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/img_6348.jpg?w=1100     Tornado, also called by its Japanese name -- Tatsumaki, is a bonsai in training by Bjorholm. Unlike many of the other trees in this exhibition, it's still in training and not ready for actual showing. It's a one-seed juniper (Juniperus monocarpa), native to the Southwest U.S.  This bonsai was named for its spiraling deadwood features. It's the largest of the American bonsai shown in this exhibition. It's also considered the largest American origin bonsai.     This bonsai is also a driftwood style bonsai. It also has the most deadwood of all the bonsai of this exhibition. In the picture above, it's still in a wooden training crate, both for ease of transport and care. In Bjorholm's most recent video on his Youtube page, the tree has been potted into an unglazed pot.     No...

California Juniper, Harry Hirao. California Juniper. National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. Photo by Atlas Obscura.     Hirao was famous for his California junipers (Juniperus californica) that he collected out of the desert by himself. This is one of them. Most have deadwood features that dominate the overall form of these bonsai. He continued to collect these plants until his passing. There are many stories of 80-something-year-old Hirao hopping from cliff to cliff and finding these plants in the wild.     Technically, this bonsai is considered a deadwood style bonsai, but it could also be considered a semi-cascade style bonsai, as its foliage is about even, or slightly below the pot. It has a large deadwood "fin," which forms because the living vein of tissue grows on one side of the branch or trunk, without growing on the other. California juniper has very soft deadwood in comparison to other species of juniper, often showing termite damage or dry rot. Care must be ...

Buttonwood, Mary Madison. Buttonwood. National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. Photo from NBF.     Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus) is a coastal shrub famous for growing on the beach. Madison was often referred to as the queen of buttonwoods, because she collected most of the best examples of this shrub. This bonsai started training in 1975, and is considered one of the best examples of American bonsai.     Yet another tree with deadwood, but it's not classified as a driftwood style bonsai. It's a "sabamiki," split-trunk or lightning struck style. Generally, bonsai with large, heavy pieces of natural deadwood are considered driftwood style. This bonsai, with its relatively small piece of deadwood that runs up the trunk into the canopy, matches the lightning-struck description.     Unlike the bonsai by Hirao, you can see the point where the trunk enters the soil, a highly valued trait. The dark of the trunk highlights the stark white deadwood, making it glow. It's...

  Bald Cypress, Vaughn Banting. Bald Cypress. National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. Photo from NBF Blog. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b3a44a7e17ba3cdbff49f51/1566396266342-SNLPVK5LMXG34B0WXO5T/Screenshot+2019-08-21+at+10.03.45+AM.png?format=500w      This is a very famous American bonsai, created by Banting in 1972 as a formal upright style tree. However, this tree no longer represents that style now. In 2000, Banting donated this tree to the American Bonsai Collection of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in D.C. It's been in training for over 50 years, which is reflected in its aged appearance.      Banting created a new style specific to bald cypress called the flat top style. It mimics the way that bald cypress grow in nature, with knee-like root protrusions, few low branches, and a broad, flat canopy. This was the first tree to have this styling.      Notice the "knee" that rises above the soil level. Bantin...

Ginpo (Silver Phoenix), John Yoshio Naka. Blue Atlas Cedar National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. Photo by NBF.     This blue atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica var. glauca) is one of Naka's pieces at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum in D.C. He has many more there, but this is one that I wanted to focus on because it's less well known than his foemina juniper planting, Goshin. This tree has been in training since 1948. It was donated to the museum in 1990.     This bonsai is styled in an informal upright style, marked by its gently curving trunk. Its relatively simple pot, neutral brown in color and lacking decoration, gives a quiet sense to the composition. The name Ginpo means Silver Phoenix. Naka said it was named because he believed that this bonsai could be renewed over and over, like a phoenix rises from the ashes again and again (McClellan).     Note that there are few branches that hang beneath the foliage pads. This is in order to keep the lines of t...