4 minute read
Survival of the Fittest/James Museum
BY MARCIA BIGGS
The James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art lives up to its name in a new exhibit that brings four international masters of wildlife painting together in one powerful show. Survival of the Fittest: Envisioning Wildlife and Wilderness with the Big Four was organized by the prestigious National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming, and includes works by the Rijksmuseum Twenthe in the Netherlands.
The Big Four refers to the four artists represented: German Richard Friese (1854–1918), Swede Bruno Liljefors (1860–1939), German Wilhelm Kuhnert (1865–1926), and German-American Carl Rungius (1869–1959).
Working during the late 1800s and early 1900s, these artists presented a vision of wildlife rarely seen outside of zoos, in their natural habitat. Up until this time, most wildlife artists never ventured further than zoos to study and paint their subjects, often placing them in imaginary backgrounds. The Big Four began painting images of animals set in the places they lived, traveling to far-off destinations such the Canadian Rockies, the Arctic and Tanzania, Africa, to gather sketches before returning to home studios to paint.
“Highlighting the best wildlife art is a core part of what The James Museum offers our guests,” said Emily Kapes, Curator of Art at The James Museum. “Survival of the Fittest is the perfect introduction to the Big Four artists who revolutionized art depicting nature and wildlife.”
Similar to the impressive Wildlife Gallery at the James, this exhibit is equally stunning in its lifelike portrayals and large dimension paintings. But those works are all by modern-day artists, points out Kapes. “Remember, the paintings in this exhibit were done over a century ago.”
Indeed, the 45 masterworks are mostly large and presented with dim lighting that is finely tuned to allow the viewer to see minute details in the shaded forests and mountain boulders and frothy seas. Some of the paintings offer a dreamy impressionist feel, as the artist experiments with backgrounds. But the main characters — the wildlife — are remarkably lifelike, seabirds soaring or polar bears roaming or tigers hunting prey or some other activity.
Preservation of the species – and its native habitat – are top of mind in this exhibit and it is meaningful. Descriptions with each painting note the animal’s native countries, its success or failure as a species, and where it stands today. The show speaks to survival and pressing concerns about climate change, endangered species, and habitat loss.
In many cases, the descriptions are an ominous warning.
For example, a herd of African savanna elephants run from a natural grassfire in Wilhelm Kuhnert’s Elephants (1917). We learn from the description that unrelenting hunting for ivory tusks have nearly decimated the population which is now deemed Endangered. In Richard Friese’s Tiger With Blackbuck (1889) we learn that there were an estimated 100,000 wild tigers at the time of the painting. But recent estimates suggest there are fewer than 3,900 tigers living in the world today.
A visit to Survival of the Fittest is more than a chance to see original works by four of the world’s renowned wildlife painters. It’s a journey to far-off reaches of the world that provides thought-provoking questions on the future of humanity’s relationship to the animals whom we share the planet with.
Survival of the Fittest runs through May 29. A Closer Look at Survival of the Fittest with curator Dr. Adam Duncan Harris will be held March 16. For more information and tickets. visit thejamesmuseum.org/survival.
