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Curator's Pick Archive
- January, 2005: Carl Rungius
- The National Museum of Wildlife Art recently acquired this early self portrait of master painter Carl Rungius. Better than Bacon depicts Rungius after a successful hunt in which he bagged an antelope. He may have painted this piece to show his family back in Germany what the landscape and terrain of Wyoming looked like and to illustrate his experiences out west.
- May, 2004: Alexander Calder
- This summer 2004, the National Museum of Wildlife Art is featuring an exhibit of brush and ink animal drawings by renowned modern artist Alexander Calder. Calder is probably best known as the inventor of the mobile. His graceful, well balanced, and impeccably designed kinetic sculptures hang in many of the world’s greatest museums. He is also known for his monumental stabiles, placed in major metropolitan courtyards from Chicago to Paris.
- August, 2003: Rosa Bonheur
- As a child, Rosa Bonheur sketched animals in the wild. In 1848 she won a gold medal and in 1853 she achieved international acclaim with her 96" x 199" painting, The Horse Fair, now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. At her chateau, now the Rosa Bonheur Museum, she received a notable honor presented by Empress Eugenie in June 1865--the Cross of the French Legion of Honor.
- June, 2003: Ansel Adams
- In September of 1938, Ansel Adams, Georgia O’Keeffe, David McAlpin and Helen and Godfrey Rockefeller took a memorable pack trip through Yosemite National Park. Upon their return, Adams made three albums to commemorate the trip and sent one to each of the participants. The album was given to friend and supporter David McAlpin. In 2000, McAlpin’s second wife, Sarah Sage Stewart McAlpin, kindly donated the album to the National Museum of Wildlife Art, thanks to the efforts of local museum supporters Robert and Geraldine Dellenback. Mrs. Dellenback was David McAlpin’s niece. The Dellenbacks have generously sponsored the conservation and framing of the album, the exhibit, and the catalogue.
- January, 2003: Ron Kingswood
- According to Ron Kingswood, Thou Shalt not Reap the Corners of thy Field is one of the most important in his recent career; a work that was the springboard for much that came after it. The biblical verse in the title asked farmers to leave the corners of their fields uncut, so that the peasants would have access to grain. The verse also, inadvertently perhaps, provides for nourishment and continuing habitat for wild animals. This piece was acquired by the 2002 Collector's Circle in the museum’s quest to tell the whole story of wildlife art, a work with such commanding presence and bold styling, a work that speaks about both the history of wildlife and contemporary painting and is a great addition to the permanent collection.
- July, 2002: Bob Kuhn
- Bob Kuhn has been a dominant force in the world of wildlife art for decades. His interest in animals and art stretches back into his childhood years, when he used to spend hours sketching animals at the Buffalo Zoo.
- February, 2002: Jean-Leon Gerome
- In fall of 2001, the National Museum of Wildlife Art (NMWA) acquired Tiger Observing Cranes (c. 1890), a significant painting by French Salon artist Jean-Leon Gerome.
- October, 2001: William Herbert Dunton
- William Herbert (Buck) Dunton had a prodigious childhood, publishing illustrations in his local Maine newspapers by age twelve. He wrote and illustrated his own column in Recreation Magazine, a sportsman’s publication based in New York City, by age fourteen. In 1912, Dunton moved west to work as a cowboy, setting up a summer studio in Taos, New Mexico. He was one of the founding members of the Taos Society of Artists. The light, landscape, and native inhabitants of the Southwest greatly appealed to Dunton, whose paintings are praised for their strength of color and form. Tapestry of Autumn, even in its title, emphasizes the composition as whole. This is not a detailed study of deer, but an investigation of light, pattern, and season.
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