Birds of Sage and Scree
03/04/2010 - 04/18/2010

Birds of Sage and Scree is an exhibit of 27 paintings by Jackson Hole artist Greg McHuron with text by naturalist, writer, and Rungius Medal recipient Bert Raynes. The paintings and text celebrate the birds, mammals, vegetation, and terrain covered by sagebrush and steep rocky scree slopes throughout the western United States. A companion book, also called Birds of Sage and Scree, will be published in late Spring 2010.

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A Change of Seasons: Wildlife in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall
10/31/2009 - 03/14/2010

TD Kelsey's A Change of Seasons greets every visitor as they drive up Rungius Road to the Museum. His work depicts two bison, one lying down, both are shedding their heavy coats as winter gives way to spring. Taking a cue from Kelsey's work, the National Museum of Wildlife Art presents A Change of Seasons: Wildlife in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, which focuses on how artists have interpreted wildlife's response to the four seasons.

One of the strengths of wildlife art is its ability to tell a wide variety of stories. Because many artists pride themselves on their accuracy in terms of recording animal behavior in the wild, we can use our collection to show how animals adapt to the various seasons of the year. Building on the success of our annual Wildlife in Winter exhibit, this installation displays wildlife art depicting animals in all four seasons, showing not only wonderful artwork, but also imparting information to our visitors about survival strategies and seasonal changes affecting wildlife.
Generously sponsored by the Friess Family Foundation, Sally & Rick Mogan, and Julie & Will Obering.

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Collection Spotlight: Rosa Bonheur and the European Tradition
10/24/2009 - 03/28/2010

This Collection Spotlight singles out Rosa Bonheur's stunning pastel King of the Forest. It is the centerpiece of interpretation and display and includes similar pieces in the collection as well as counterpoints.

Bonheur was one of the first female painters to gain wide recognition for her talent as an artist. As a child, Bonheur sketched animals in the wild. She was an early advocate of women's rights and a strong believer that the notion of "artist as genius" did not only apply to men. Bonheur went to unconventional lengths for a woman of her time to produce realistic representations of animals. She frequented slaughterhouses, performed animal dissections in order to fully understand their anatomy, and kept a small private zoo. As a female artist in a socially restrictive era, Bonheur had to obtain special permission from the police in order to wear pants while she worked; she also refused to ride a horse sidesaddle and smoked cigarettes in public. Visit the exhibition to learn more about this remarkable artist and individual.

Generously sponsored by Tania & Tom Evans and Marcia & Mike Taylor.

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A Diverse View of the West: Works on Paper from the National Museum of Wildlife Art
10/10/2009 - 04/18/2010

A Diverse View of the West contains a wide variety of artwork rendered on paper, ranging from historic etchings to contemporary large-scale pastels, with particular emphasis on subjects related to the American West. Some of the works are studies that eventually led to larger works on canvas, and others are works of art in their own right.

Work by explorers and naturalists such as Titian Ramsay Peale, George Catlin, and John James Audubon gave eager audiences back east a fuller sense of the wildlife population out west. Other historic artists, such as Alfred Jacob Miller, Thomas Moran, and Frederic Remington sketched and painted an idealized version of the West in eloquent celebrations of all the land had to offer. These artists also had a yearning to immortalize the landscape before the incursion of eastern settlers changed it beyond recognition.

Contemporary artists, such as Donna Howell-Sickles and Geordie Millar continue celebrating humanity's relationship with nature with their amazing skills of observation and artistic interpretation. The fresh, immediacy of pencil or brush on paper communicates each artist's vision. Captivating images of birds, elk, grizzlies, cottontails of other fabulous creatures of the wild make this a remarkable collection of works on paper.

View the online exhibition of A Diverse View of the West.

Generously sponsored by: Gina & Dick Heise, Julie & Will Obering, and an Anonymous Donor.

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The Natural World: Photographs by Thomas D. Mangelsen
10/01/2009 - 04/25/2010

The Natural World chronicles award-winning photographer Thomas D. Mangelsen's experiences in 10 unique natural areas through panoramic photographs and excerpts from his journals. Mangelsen's journal entries take us on his daily excursions through the jungle, across the icebergs, and down the coast of Iceland. He describes the losses and (sometimes) the preservation of these wild places. The Natural World will appeal to art and photography lovers, scientists, school groups, and visitors to the Museum. The companion book for this exhibition, also titled The Natural World took top honors in the coffee table book category of the Benjamin Franklin Awards.

Generously sponsored by Gold: Elizabeth McCabe/Jackson Hole News&Guide, Silver: Marcia Kunstel & Joe Albright, Sophie & Derek Craighead, Explorers Club, Friends of Tom, Carole & Bob Hummel, Monsanto, Spring Creek Ranch, Tom's Tribe, Veerle & Kent Ullberg, Angie Greene Wright; Bronze: James and Alvina Bartos Balog Foundation, Gainor & Joseph Bennett, Linda & Tony Brooks, Gloria & Ross Edwards, Beth Murdaugh, Tina & Karl Weber, and Anonymous

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Wyoming Winners: Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest
05/01/2010 - 08/08/2010

Since 1994, National Museum of Wildlife Art has collaborated with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to assist in conducting the Wyoming Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program. This dynamic, active, art and science program is designed to teach wetlands habitat and waterfowl conservation to students in kindergarten through high school. The program guides students using scientific and wildlife observation principles to communicate visually what they have learned through an entry into the Junior Duck Stamp art contest. This non-traditional pairing of subjects brings new interest to both the sciences and the arts. It crosses cultural, ethnic, social, and geographic boundaries to teach greater awareness of our nation’s natural resources.

Students select a native North American waterfowl and portray it either through a drawing or a painting in a 9" x 12" horizontal format. All entries are sent to the Museum (400 - 800 entries are received each year) and a panel of wildlife experts and artists choose first, second, and third place and honorable mention winners from each grade level. One-hundred ribbons are awarded to Wyoming students. The top 36 winning selections are framed and hung in Museum’s King Gallery each summer. The Best of Show winner receives a cash prize and their artwork is sent to the national competition where the winners receive college scholarships. The First Place design from the national contest is used to create a Junior Duck Stamp for the following year. Proceeds from the sale of Junior Duck Stamps support conservation education and provide awards and scholarships for the students, teachers, and schools who participate in the program.
Generously sponsored by Mary Ann & Harry Lawroski, Clarke Nelson, Cynthia & David Quast, Spring Creek Ranch, and Anonymous.

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Karl Bodmer's Western Wildlife: Original Sketches from the Joslyn Art Museum
05/08/2010 - 08/29/2010

Accompanying German naturalist Prince Maximilian zu Wied on an expedition up the Missouri River from 1832 - 1834, Swiss artist Karl Bodmer was one of the first European artists to explore and sketch the North American frontier. The combination of Bodmer's beautifully rendered drawings and Maximilian's scientific observations created a body of work of unique historical, scientific, and aesthetic importance. Bodmer is best known today for his portraits of American Indians and his views of the extraordinary Missouri River Valley landscape. However, he also recorded the fauna encountered by the team. Over the course of the expedition, Bodmer produced finely executed and wonderfully detailed studies of a wide variety of animals, birds, and reptiles. Sometimes drawn from the wild and presented in their natural habitat, sometimes rendered from creatures shot as specimens, these works were given the same attention and care as Bodmer's other paintings. This exhibit brings these rarely seen records of North American fauna to light. The images are both a valuable record of Bodmer's journey and are some of the earliest depictions of North American animals to be seen in the Eastern United States and in Europe. Generously sponsored by Spring Creek Ranch and Jade & David Walsh.

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Travels in the Interior of North America: Etchings by Karl Bodmer
05/08/2010 - 10/17/2010

Complementing Karl Bodmer's original sketches of western wildlife from the Joslyn Art Museum, the Museum will feature a selection of his amazing etchings from its own collection of prints from Travels in the Interior of North America:. A record of Prince Maximilian's scientific observations illustrated with etchings by Bodmer, Travels premiered in Europe between 1839 and 1843 and was among the first publications to showcase the American West. Including portraits of Native Americans, landscapes, and wildlife, the selections from the book featured in this exhibit display the diversity of subjects Bodmer encountered on his expedition with Prince Maximilian up the Missouri River from 1832 – 1834.
Generously sponsored by Anonymous.

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Wild New Ways: Maurice Sendak's Animal Kingdom
05/15/2010 - 09/19/2010

From common pets to mythical beasts, nearly all of the 108 books illustrated by Maurice Sendak include animals of some kind. Drawn from the Rosenbach Museum and Library's collection of original Sendak material, this exhibition showcases wild things alongside their more domestic counterparts. Sendak's veritable bestiary ranges from dogs, farm animals, and well-behaved bears to the famous Wild Things and their untamed brethren. The 30 original illustrations show the range of styles with which Sendak captures the textures of fur, feathers, and scales, such as his precise pen and ink drawings for The Bat-Poet and the soft watercolors of Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present. Visitors can glimpse Sendak's sketch of lions at the Central Park Zoo from the 1950s and read an early draft of Where the Wild Things Are in which a wolfish Max commands, "Show me wild new ways." This exhibition was organized by the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia and will be on view at the National Museum of Wildlife Art from May 15 to September 19, 2010.
Generously sponsored by Gold: Lynn & Foster Friess, Georgene & John Tozzi; Silver: Barbara Carlsberg, and Jade & David Walsh.

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Wild at Heart: Highlights from the National Museum of Wildlife Art
05/22/2010 - 08/15/2010

Wild at Heart began as collaborative exhibit with the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where it premiered during the summer of 2006. Since then, it has traveled to venues including the Rockwell Museum in Corning, New York, and the Vero Beach Museum of Art in Vero Beach, Florida. This winter it appears at the Art Museum of South Texas in Corpus Christi before returning to the Museum for exhibition this summer.

Wild at Heart displays the rich history of one of North America's proudest art traditions, featuring highlights from the Museum's Permanent Collection. This exhibit groups the artwork into different regions, East, West, North, and South, corresponding to areas of North America that have been of particular interest to artists over the last century and a half. The exhibit contains wildlife from the United States and Canada painted and sculpted by some of the finest historic and contemporary American artists, such as painters Albert Bierstadt, William H. Dunton, and Bob Kuhn plus sculptors Edward Kemeys, Albert Laessle, and Ken Bunn. Wild at Heart also features work by artists from France, Sweden, and Germany, providing a testament to the attractive nature of our wilderness areas and wildlife populations to artists from foreign countries.
Generously sponsored by Gold: Mary & Jim Barnes, Gail & Bob Hughes, Chuck Miller, Sally & Rick Mogan; and Silver: Howell A. and Ann M. Breedlove Charitable Foundation, Ann Trammell, and Anonymous.

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Great Plains: America's Lingering Wild, Photography by Michael Forsberg
10/02/2010 - 01/30/2011

From Michael Forsberg:
Less than 200 years ago, the Great Plains of North America were perhaps the greatest grassland ecosystem on Earth. Then, in the blink of an evolutionary eye, much of its grandeur was gone. As American settlers expanded west, the native grazers, top predators, and indigenous cultures of the plains were systematically wiped out. The prairie was plowed up, fenced in, overgrazed, paved over, and otherwise degraded. Today, this fragmented landscape is the most endangered and least protected ecosystem on the continent.

To many people, the Great Plains are an empty stage. To others, the Plains are a dynamic but forgotten landscape — overlooked, undervalued, misunderstood, and in desperate need of conservation. This project helps lead the way forward — inspiring, informing, and enabling visitors to recognize and recapture the wild spirit of these Great Plains.
Generously sponsored by Monsanto, Old Bill's Fun Run XIII, and Spring Creek Ranch.

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African Adventures with William R. Leigh and his Contemporaries
10/02/2010 - 04/02/2011

In 1926, famed western artist William R. Leigh joined an expedition led by naturalist and sculptor Carl Akeley to gather material for the African Hall of the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The studies he created during that trip formed the basis upon which many of the diorama backgrounds were created. Leigh also used his African experiences to pen Frontiers of Enchantment: An Artist's Adventures in Africa (published in 1938). During the fall of 2010 and winter of 2011, the Museum will display the original illustrations Leigh created for his book. These wonderfully rendered works will be on view alongside the sculptures of other artists who worked at the American Museum including Carl Akeley, James Lippitt Clark , Robert Rockwell , Louis Paul Jonas, and Charles R. Knight.

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Collection Spotlight: Rembrandt Bugatti and the Antwerp School
10/23/2010 - 04/24/2011

Rembrandt Bugatti ranks among the most influential animal artists of the 20th century. Working from live animal models at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris and later at the Antwerp Zoological Gardens in Belgium, Bugatti brought a sense of immediacy to his work as he captured the individual characteristics of specific animals. Modeling impressionistically, he sculpted his animal subjects in quiet poses, either standing alone, engaged in day-to-day activities, or interacting peacefully in a group. Bugatti received critical acclaim for his sculpture from an early age. His father, a well-known Italian furniture designer, first recognized Rembrandt's talents at the age of 15, when a family friend discovered a sculpture of cows that the boy had hidden in his father's workshop. In Antwerp, Bugatti worked alongside fellow animalier artists Alberic Collin and Frans Jochems, in the supportive artistic environment of the Antwerp Zoo. A great influence on their sculpture, he also served as friend and mentor to the reclusive Italian sculptor Guido Righetti. Two castings of Righetti's extremely rare work will be on display alongside works by Bugatti, Collin, and Jochems. Also on view will be work by contemporary artists influenced by the masterful work of Bugatti and his contemporaries.

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Dusk to Dawn: Nocturnes from the Collection
10/30/2010 - 05/01/2011

Dusk to Dawn highlights work from the Permanent Collection depicting animals during the hours from early evening through late morning, a favorite time for wildlife to venture out of hiding and forage for food. Twilight is also a favorite time among artists to paint; the low light creates glorious sunsets, long shadows, and amazing, often moody, atmospheric effects. This exhibit opens discussions about the practice of painting nocturnes and twilight scenes as it facilitates education about nocturnal animal behavior. With artists ranging from historic painters such as Georges-Frederick Rotig and Frank Tenney Johnson to contemporary painters like Lars Jonsson and Bob Kuhn, Dusk to Dawn will showcase the enduring power of painting in the mysterious, muted hours from sunset to sunrise.
Generously sponsored by Tally & Bill Mingst.

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A Change of Seasons: Wildlife in Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter
02/12/2011 - 05/01/2011

T.D. Kelsey's A Change of Seasons greets every visitor as they drive up Rungius Road to the Museum. His work depicts two bison shedding their heavy coats as Winter gives way to Spring. Taking a cue from Kelsey's work, the National Museum of Wildlife Art presents A Change of Seasons: Wildlife in Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, an exhibition that focuses on artists' interpretations of how wildlife responds to the four seasons.

One of the strengths of the Museum's Permanent Collection is its breadth and flexibility, which allows us to explore a variety of topics, from art history to natural behavior. Because many artists pride themselves on their accuracy in terms of recording animal behavior in the wild, the Museum can use its collection to show how animals adapt to the various seasons of the year. From bears fattening up for their long winter hibernation to elk in velvet, this exhibit shows not only beautiful artwork, but also wildlife in different stages of development, preparing for the coming season.

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