In Those That Came Before, Ian Berry pays homage to the artists and creative figures whose work has influenced his own artistic practice and shaped his way of seeing the world. Conceived as a bouquet, the work brings together a diverse group of artists, writers and cultural figures, with each flower serving as a representation of an individual.

Among those represented are Georgia O’Keeffe, David Hockney, Keith Haring, Salvador Dalí, Andy Warhol, Cecil Beaton, Catherine Opie, Aubrey Beardsley, Cedric Morris, Charles Demuth, Clare Atwood, Cy Twombly, Egon Schiele, Ellsworth Kelly, Ethel Sands, and Albrecht Dürer, alongside many others.

Some of these connections are especially personal. David Hockney, for example, is represented not only in recognition of his significance as an artist, but also because of his friendship with Berry. Oscar Wilde is represented by a green carnation, recalling the flower associated with his public image and famously worn in his buttonhole. It is also the only flower in the work made from a material (and color) other than denim: Berry used kerchief material for the carnation, allowing the material itself to become part of the tribute.

The selection of each flower was informed by extensive research. Berry examined not only the lives and practices of the artists, but their bodies of work, searching in particular for instances in which they had depicted flowers themselves. Paintings, drawings, photographs and other works became sources through which he traced recurring botanical subjects, significant blooms and visual motifs associated with individual artists.

Where possible, Berry selected a flower that had appeared directly within the artist’s own work. This establishes a tangible visual connection between the artist being commemorated and the flower that represents them in the bouquet. The flower is therefore not simply an emblem chosen retrospectively; it originates within the artist’s own visual language before being reinterpreted by Berry.

Research consequently became an integral part of the making of the work. The process involved moving between biography, artistic practice and visual imagery, considering both the flowers artists depicted and the wider associations attached to them. Through this process, each bloom acquired a particular identity and relationship to the person it represents.

Berry then painstakingly recreated the flowers in denim, translating botanical forms associated with other artists into his own distinctive medium. Each flower was made individually, and only once the separate elements were complete did Berry begin to compose the final bouquet.

This method of construction is central to the work. Rather than beginning with a predetermined overall composition, Those That Came Before developed through the accumulation of individual acts of research, interpretation and making. The completed bouquet brings together artists from different generations, disciplines and cultural contexts, while allowing each flower to retain its own identity and significance.

The work also draws upon the longstanding tradition of flowers as a visual language. Across art and culture, particular flowers have carried associations with beauty, mortality, love, remembrance, friendship and identity. Berry engages with this history while extending it into a distinctly personal system of representation. Within Those That Came Before, the flowers function simultaneously as botanical forms, symbols of remembrance and references to specific artistic practices.

The scale and density of the bouquet encourage sustained looking. What initially presents itself as a single, abundant still life gradually resolves into a gathering of individual references and narratives. Each flower contains a connection to another artist, while the collective arrangement reveals the breadth and character of Berry’s own artistic influences.

In this respect, Those That Came Before operates as both homage and dialogue. Berry takes elements from the visual worlds of artists he admires and reinterprets them through his own practice. The resulting work establishes a chain of artistic exchange: flowers once depicted by others are researched, remade in denim and brought together within a new composition.

More than a still life, Those That Came Before is a portrait of artistic influence and memory. Each flower commemorates an individual; collectively, they form a visual history of the artists and creative figures who have helped shape Ian Berry’s artistic world.