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a dramatic black-and-white photograph of the underside of a dragon blood tree
Beth Moon, “Heart of the Dragon” (2010), archival pigment inks on cotton paper, 32 × 48 inches. Image © Beth Moon, courtesy of the artist, shared with permission

A New Book Branches Out Across 3,500 Years to Explore Our Enchantment with Trees

Kate Mothes

Spanning 3,500 years of art, science, culture, and history, Tree: Exploring the Arboreal World surveys the awe-inspiring beauty and romance of trees.

Forthcoming from Phaidon, the volume includes more than 300 illustrations ranging from ancient wall paintings and botanical illustrations to captivating photography and multimedia work by today’s leading artists.

a photograph of a realistic miniature diorama of an old library that has been abandoned and is getting overgrown by trees and vines
Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber, “Library” (2007), archival pigment print, 48 x 60 inches. Image courtesy of Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio, and Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, Florida

Tree takes an expansive approach to the topic, introducing scientific and historical inquiry alongside artistic expression and documentation of the planet’s wide variety of species. From a meticulous diorama of an overgrown library by Lori Nix and Kathleen Gerber and patinated metalwork by Shota Suzuki to ancient Egyptian tomb paintings and stunning dragon blood trees photographed by Beth Moon, the book celebrates the myriad ways we are interconnected with trees.

Grab your copy in the Colossal Shop.

a painting on paper of an Egyptian funerary scene, recreated from an original tomb painting
Charles K. Wilkinson, “Funeral Ritual in a Garden” (1921), tempera on paper, 28 × 48 inches. Image courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art/Rogers Fund, 1930
a delicate metal sculpture of a sapling growing out of a small pile of dead leaves
Shota Suzuki, “Heaven and Earth” (2023), copper, brass, nickel silver and patina, 8 × 8 × 8 1/2 inches Image courtesy of the artist
a mixed-media collage of a Black woman wearing a grass cloak, seated in a forest with her chin resting in her hands
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, “Secrets of the Magnolia Tree” (2021), watercolor, ink, gouache, and photograph on archival paper, triptych, overall 132 x 90 inches. Image courtesy of Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Gallery Wendi Norris, San Francisco
a color study using leaves that are shown in a grid with a gradient of light to dark running from left to right
Gary Fabian Miller, “Breathing in the Beech Wood, Homeland, Dartmoor, Twenty-Four Days of Sunlight” (2004), dye destruction prints, 64 x 64 inches. Image courtesy of the artist and Victoria and Albert Museum, London
a 17th-century ink painting on silk depicting a tree with paper banners hanging from the branches
Tosa Mitsuoki, “Autumn Maples with Poem Slips” (c.1675), ink, colours, gold leaf and gold powder on silk, 56 x 108 inches. Image courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago
a 19th-century illustration of a bird and moths in an Indian Jujube tree
Sheikh Zain-al-Din, “Brahminy Starling with Two Antheraea Moths, Caterpillar and Cocoon on Indian Jujube Tree” (1777), opaque colors and ink on paper, 30 × 38 inches. Courtesy of Minneapolis Institute of Art
the cover of a book titled 'Tree' with a collage of a tree's leaves on a blue background

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