“Then followed that beautiful season…summer…Filled was the air with a dreamy and magical light; and the landscape lay, as if new-created in all the freshness of childhood.”—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet
As summer approaches, we thought it was the perfect time to shine a light on our collection's artworks that encapsulate the season's spirit. In our Summer Edit, we have curated a selection of pieces that, through a variety of mediums and subject matter, evoke the joy, warmth, slower pace, and brilliance of nature during the summer months. Immerse yourself in bold, bright, and impactful artworks that will allow you to bask in the best aspects of the season and have that summer feeling all year round.
The summer season’s unique qualities have inspired many of our artists, who turn their gaze to summer’s abundance of nature, golden glow, and leisurely activities enjoyed.
Yellow Mimosa, 2015 by Donald Sultan
Summer brings a vibrant energy to nature, so it is no wonder that some of the most powerful evocations of the warmer months are floral and botanical artworks. These pieces reflect the beauty and colour of the season, depicting fields, wildflowers, meadows, and tropical plants that burst with colour and life. Donald Sultan’s work is concerned with the temporary nature of the natural world. In Yellow Mimosa, July 23, Sultan’s spectacularly summery screenprint, the artist simplifies the forms of the flowers and uses a refrained colour palette, demonstrating how he has broadened the horizons of the still life tradition. Sultan was drawn to the mimosa tree during his time working in the south of France, using it to interrogate the boundaries between abstraction and representation.
As the summer is a popular time for travel and holidays, it is unsurprising that many artists choose to depict beach and coastal scenes, which recall carefree days spent by the sea and encapsulate the relaxing nature of the season. Alex Katz’s Harbor, 2006, features two figures sitting and contemplating the green expanse of water. After enduring months of cold or rainy weather, summer brings with it the opportunity to get outside, where people can enjoy more leisurely pursuits, outside the confinements of their homes. Katz’s calming nautical scene, Red Sail, 2008, portrays a lone sailboat on the horizon of a still, flat sea. The beautiful, muted colour palette is reminiscent of the golden glow that we associate with the summer months and the serene and dreamy ambience that this creates. This idyllic representation of nature and recreation elicits wanderlust.
As we all know, it is not always perfect weather in summer. Amy Lincoln makes innovative and intensely hued paintings of the natural world, such as the joyous Rainbow with Rain Clouds, which depicts a shower of rain from zeppelin-shaped clouds and a rainbow in their most simplified forms. Lincoln manipulates the rainbow, a symbol of hope and optimism, into an atmospheric interpretation of space and colour, consisting of meticulously arranged gradated colour planes that create the illusion of depth and motion.
Mimosa, April 30, 2015 by Donald Sultan
Donald Sultan is an American artist known for his recurring motifs and experimental use of unconventional materials such as tar, oil and latex. We love how Sultan is influenced by art history, taking inspiration from the minimalist movement and the work of Carl Andre and Josef Beuys. Sultan’s popularity soared to new heights in the 1980s, and his works are held in the permanent collections of over 50 galleries such as the Guggenheim Museum and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.
Alex Katz, born in Brooklyn, New York, is renowned for his large paintings with bold simplicity and heightened colours. Katz is known for his flatness of colour and form, economy of line, and cool emotional detachment. Portraiture and landscapes are Katz’s favoured subjects, often featuring New York City and Maine landscapes, and family members and prominent figures. Katz studied at the Cooper Union and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Rainbow with Rainclouds, 2022 by Amy Lincoln
Amy Lincoln lives and works in Queens, New York. Lincoln focuses on the elements, such as water, weather, sunlight and clouds, depicting every inch of the surface with intricately considered and applied gradations of colour. Lincoln completed her MFA in Painting at Temple University, Tyler School of Art in 2006 and her BA in Studio Art at University of California, Davis. Lincoln constructs a space reminiscent of a stage set, in which dramas of an imagined world play out for our contemplation.
Leap into summer and embrace the season’s qualities and attractions with our gorgeously summery artworks in the Summer Edit.
