Skip to main content

For the Love of Canines

Through August 27, 2023 Buy Tickets

Exhibition open October 22, 2022 – August 27, 2023

Wild canines, including foxes, coyotes, and wolves, have held significant social and cultural meaning to humans worldwide throughout history. However, there are conflicted emotional opinions regarding these familiar predators.  Foxes, for example, while prized for their beauty and their cunningness, are despised for preying on smaller livestock and poultry, such as chickens and ducks. Coyotes, a canine species native to North America, nearly brought to extinction during western settlement, are also part of some Native cultures’ cosmologies. Sometimes considered a creator, Coyote might also be wicked or a buffoon. Of all wild canines, wolves have perhaps caused the most dread historically. Feared by ancient farmers to present day ranchers, wolves that at times prey on sheep, cattle, and other domestic animals, have also been known to kill humans. Alternatively, the famous Etruscan sculpture of La Lupa Capitolina (The Capitoline Wolf) from the fifth century BCE depicts a she-wolf caring for twins, Romulus and Remus, who founded city of Rome. Still, the one thing that all wild canines have common is a genetic relation to our own much beloved domestic dogs.

For the Love of Canines questions humans’ relation and fascination with canines, whether love or loathing, through works of art from NMWA’s permanent collection.

Carl Rungius (Germany, 1869 – 1959), Red Fox, 1933. Oil on canvas. 30 x 40 inches. Jackson Hole Preserve, National Museum of Wildlife Art. © Estate of Carl Rungius.
Ken Carlson (United States, b. 1937), Wolf, 1988. Oil on board. 23 x 35 inches. JKM Collection®, National Museum of Wildlife Art. © Ken Carlson.
George Catlin (United States, 1796 – 1872), Buffalo Hunt, White Wolves Attacking, 1848. Hand-colored lithograph. 12 x 17 3/4 inches. JKM Collection®, National Museum of Wildlife Art.
Robert Bateman (Canada, b. 1930), Mesa Verde – Coyote, 2004. Acrylic on panel. 24 x 36 inches. JKM Collection®, National Museum of Wildlife Art. © Robert Bateman.
William Gollings (United States, 1878 – 1932), The Call, 1910. Oil on canvas. 14 ½ x 10 ½ inches. JKM Collection®, National Museum of Wildlife Art.
Frank Tenney Johnson (United States, 1874 – 1939), Coyote Moonrise, c. 1920. Oil on canvas. 30 x 40 inches. JKM Collection®, National Museum of Wildlife Art.
Robert F. Kuhn (United States, 1920 – 2007), Sly Fox, 1990. Acrylic on board. 8 x 14 inches. Gift of Eliza and Tom Chrystie, National Museum of Wildlife Art Collection. © Estate of Robert F. Kuhn.
Terrance Guardipee (Blackfeet, b.1968), Black Wolf Society, 2020. Oil stick on antique ledger paper. 19 x 36 inches. Gift of the 2020 Blacktail Gala, National Museum of Wildlife Art. © Terrance Guardipee.
Alfred Wierusz Kowalski (Poland, 1849 - 1915), A Pack of Wolves, n.d.. Oil on canvas. 36 1/2 x 48 5/8 inches. On Loan from William G. Kerr, National Museum of Wildlife Art.
Robert F. Kuhn (United States, 1920 – 2007), Desert Harmony. Acrylic on board. 16 x 32 inches. Gift of John and Saralynn Geraghty and the RSGBK Foundation, JKM Collection®, National Museum of Wildlife Art Collection. © Estate of Robert F. Kuhn.
Other Exhibits
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3

State of the Art: Student Art Show in Honor of Marion Buchenroth

Through June 4, 2023

This youth art exhibit is an annual collaboration between the National Museum of Wildlife Art and art educators from Teton County schools. The several hundred works of art on display beautifully demonstrate how students grow as artists as they move through grades K-12. Each art educator and group of students interpreted the theme Transformation in their own way.

See the Exhibit
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3

Survival of the Fittest

Through August 20, 2023

Only two museums in the world, the National Museum of Wildlife Art and the Rijksmuseum Twenthe (in Enschede, Netherlands), hold masterworks by each member of the Big Four. Survival of the Fittest will bring together the best paintings from these two institutions and use them to explore colonialism, Darwinism, art history, land and wildlife conservation, as well as Indigenous peoples’ ways of life and seeing nature.

See the Exhibit
What People Are Saying
  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
"The local student's art was one of my favorite things I've seen in a long time. It brought me to tears to see such an overwhelming amount of talent in our youth."
— Aubrey C.
"Beautiful and awe-inspiring! Loved every minute of this visit. "
— Carly S.
"Love the beauty and serenity of this Museum. Wonderful, kind, and educated staff!"
— Gemma M.
" I have visited museums around the world and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It was far more than I was expecting. What a treat! Don't miss it!"
— Roxanne B.
"No trip to Jackson is complete without a visit to this Museum! It contains many current and historical wildlife paintings and overlooks the Elk Refuge. We go every time we visit."
— J.W.
"The permanent collection is fantastic, and the temporary shows are insightful and always full of surprises. "
— Jennifer S.
"This is as good as everyone says! We are not museum people and we are especially not art museum people but we loved this place."
— David W.
"The most pleasant surprise was the restaurant Palate - the manager ran it like a fine restaurant! What a view! And the food was excellent - probably one of the best meals we had in Jackson!"
— Erin S.