How High Is the High?

Abstract

When visitors enter the High Museum in Atlanta, one of the first pieces of art they encounter is Physic Garden, by Molly Hatch (details in photographs 1 and 2). Physic Garden consists of 456 handpainted dinner plates arranged to form a rectangle with 24 horizontal rows and 19 vertical columns and extends from the floor to the ceiling of the first floor. The design of the “plate painting” was inspired by two mid-18th-century English ceramic plates from the museum's collection (photograph 3).