Human/Nature
Exploring Humanity's Relationship with Wildlife
October 20 2012 - May 9 2013
About the Exhibition
The relationship between humans and animals has been a constant source of inspiration since the first artists depicted bison, deer, and wild cattle on cave walls over 30,000 years ago. Since then, the relationship has been drawn and redrawn countless times across a wide variety of cultures as people use animals in art to tell stories about the world in which we live.
Many works depict humans interacting with animals or tell human stories with animal actors. Wild animals can be used to evoke a wide variety of emotions, ranging from comfort to fear. With subjects borrowed from the Bible, Native American stories, fairy tales, and ancient mythology, works from the National Museum of Wildlife Art's permanent collection help us investigate a number of different perspectives on humanity's relationship with nature.
