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Reliquary Flower

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Reliquary Flower

1953

Leo Kenney

born 1925, Spokane, Washington; died Seattle, Washington, 2001

The reliquary flower is a Victorian keepsake— an item of jewelry, a memento enshrined within a glass locket—a flower endowed with an individual’s memories and meaning. As Kenney paints it, a flower itself is a reliquary, a natural chamber filled with mystifying things that have mystical powers.
Opaque watercolor and gold leaf on Chinese paper
23 x 18 1/2in. (58.4 x 47cm)
Gift of the Marshall and Helen Hatch Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2009.52.50
Provenance: Leona Wood; Marshall and Helen Hatch, Seattle
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryLa Conner, Washington, Museum of Northwest Art, "Leo Kenny Retrospective: Celebrating the Mysteries", June 2 - October 1, 2000

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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