Connections/Trees

My name is Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide. I'm a curator in the department of European sculpture and decorative arts, and today I would like to talk about trees.

Trees are very important in any landscape. Either being in a grove or just an individual

tree here and there. But they certainly provide respite from the sun and

create very interesting light effects, different on any given day depending on the weather or the time or the season, which makes my walk through Central Park certainly very different, any given day.

I come with a sense of wonder and deep respect. There's something very Zen about looking at trees, even though when I was younger I probably didn't know what that meant.

Looking at these beautiful trees which are basically the largest plants that exist, also living longer than we do

I think if you look you'll find extraordinary variety in colors and textures.

Some bear lovely, pastel-colored flowers in the springtime, and others color bright red or orange in the fall, and every year it seems to be a total surprise.

And you can see bird's nests that are otherwise hidden when the trees are full of leaves.

It is particularly beautiful when they're silhouetted against the winter sky, and that silhouette is softened by a thin layer of snow.

Some of the trees are real personalities I feel. Their branches shaped in all kinds of twisting curves, perhaps beaten after decades of rain and wind and storm.

Others are standing straight like soldiers.

Sometimes the brute force of the roots have uprooted the pavement, they are very visible.

In this painting by Fragonard, this tree-lined avenue, really almost forms an open-air cathedral. The branches on either side of the road are bent almost in a gothic-style arch.

Once a tree has died, its root lives on in many different forms. All the many books in the library to

many different objects: large monumental sculptures

the very virtuous carvings, or

marvelous marquetry. This mechanical table that was created for Madame de Pompadour

which has extraordinary depictions, really as if it were painting in wood.

These exotic veneers that were so effectively used by cabinetmakers like Ruhlmann, showing off the wonderful Macassar ebony veneers.

Sometimes you find trees having formed inspiration in unlikely places, such as this cubist tree

or, very surprising to me, this incredibly festive evening gown by Charles James ,which is entitled "Tree."

They are survivors in this big city full of concrete and stone.

They're so important, they offer us oxygen and shadow on hot days, and shelter for birds and small animals.

There is indeed this warmth, at least to me, which I would way prefer over plastic or man-made materials.

There's something very comforting about them.