Preserved Nature. A glimpse into the botanical collections at the Späth Arboretum. Featuring works by Karl-Heinz Klingbeil
The exhibition explored the significance of observing plants and acquiring knowledge about them for the preservation of biodiversity. It highlighted the importance of artistic and scientific collections and botanical gardens.
The exhibition invited visitors to set out in search of clues and to rediscover nature time and again through an artistic and scientific lens – both outdoors and preserved in artistic and scientific collections. Organised as a collaboration between the Späth Arboretum and the HU Art Collection, it brought together objects from both fields in the Lichthof Ost from 22 November 2024 to 16 January 2025.
The focus was on viewing plants from an artistic and scientific perspective, marking the donation of an extensive collection of drawings and oil studies by Karl-Heinz Klingbeil (1924–2019) to the Späth Arboretum. What is particularly interesting about Klingbeil’s drawings and oil studies, which depict plants, trees, lawns and woodland, is, on the one hand, their precise botanical observation and, on the other, the fact that some of them were created in the Humboldt-Universität Arboretum. They thus serve as a historical record of natural vegetation and the botanical collection, whilst also offering a highly personal artistic perspective on nature.
Deliberately conceived as a small exhibition focusing on Klingbeil’s works and various exhibits from the arboretum’s scientific collections, the aim was to exemplify forms of representation from art and science. The diversity of perceptions of plants, reflected in the various media forms, also points to different ways of gaining knowledge. With herbarium specimens and preparations from the Arboretum, the exhibition highlighted the systematic recording, description and identification of plants, as well as the scientific data associated with them. Realistically painted and dismantlable plant models were used in both science and arts and crafts lessons, explaining functional aspects of plant structure and emphasising the ornamental value of the plant. Alongside the human gaze, whether artistic or scientific, the microscope serves as a visual aid to the hidden dimensions of morphology. The exhibition illustrated this using prepared pollen grains and leaf venations.
