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From the Archives: The Art of Research
By: Hannah Barton, Garden Archivist
While it may not seem like art and botany have much in common, in fact, botanical art was used as an early tool to aid in the scientific identification of differing plant species and plant parts. Before the advent of photography, artistic documentation of specific plants acted as the visual definition of each plant, and often were able to leave a more lasting impression on the botanist than a descriptive text might. Artists who engage with their subject matter in a strictly representational form have carried on a lasting tradition aimed at studying, capturing, and preserving these plants over time, without disturbing any physical part of the plant.
Henry R. Mockel (1905–1981) was a German American artist and amateur botanist who spent the second half of his life living near Joshua Tree National Park and studying the plants of the Mojave Desert. In this time, he produced a large body of artwork (mainly prints), many of which we are fortunate enough to house in the Garden’s Archives.
Of this collection, I am particularly drawn to a series of six serigraphs that follow the Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera) through its progressive stages of flowering, from bud to flower to fruit, and even illustrates the dried panicle after the fruit has been scavenged by desert dwellers. The Mojave yucca is a unique plant that is well adapted to life in the harsh desert environment. It has long, spiky leaves which emerge from a central rosette and a tall, central stalk that can grow up to 20 feet (6 meters) tall. The Mojave yucca grows very slowly, sometimes only up to 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) per year, and does not die after blooming, like many of its monocot relatives.
Mockel’s Mojave yucca serigraphs capture the beauty and intricacy of this important desert plant in stunning detail. Through his careful and consistent observation, Mockel created a useful tool for those wanting to study and identify these yuccas, but he also retained an artist’s signature style and voice. These prints, in particular, are striking not only in their muted palette and artistic beauty but also in their ability to educate those who might not observe these plants in the wild over the span of time that it would take to witness the bud bloom into the flower, the flower form into the fruit, and what remains after the fruit has been harvested. These prints act almost as an artist-rendered time-lapse in six frames, and display the patience that Mockel demonstrated in capturing this process. He wrote: “We [artists] claim that it is our prerogative to retain a high regard for the different aspects of nature that we witnessed, sometimes by happenstance, sometimes by patiently waiting.” (Mockel, Mockel’s Desert Flower Notebook, 1971: 9)
With his series of prints, Mockel also emphasizes the importance of forging a relationship with plants beyond their peak blooming stage — and taking the time to appreciate and study the full flowering cycle, from start to finish. I hope that in seeing these prints, you might develop a broader awareness for how plants in your environment evolve throughout the year, as these observations over time have the potential to teach us so much about the cyclical nature of plants and their ecosystems. O
